Photograph by Robert Scheer
Mike Fox Jr. (left) and Mike Fox Sr. survey a storage warehouse at M.E. Fox & Co.
By Loretta McCarty
Years ago he trained for the New York and Paris marathons at the West Valley college track. Today, he's still running around the campus attending meetings as the new chair of the West Valley-Mission-Advancement Foundation.
Mike Fox Sr., president and founder of M.E. Fox & Co., a beverage distribution company in San Jose, accepted the post this year from West Valley Chancellor Rose Tseng.
The two are longtime associates who met when they served on several boards together at San Jose State University. Tseng, formerly the dean of the College of Applied Science and Art, said that what struck her about Fox was his understanding of what drives a community and his support of education.
Tseng said when she approached Fox about the post almost three years ago, but he turned her down. At the time he was the chairman of the United Way, and his plate was full, but he said he would be happy to help her if she would ask him again in a few years.
Over a recent business breakfast, Tseng said she took him up on that offer, and this time he accepted. She said it wasn't hard to convince Fox of how important community colleges are to people who come to learn the job skills they need to better themselves and society.
Fox admitted that he really didn't know that much about West Valley College and had to get rid of his misconceptions. "I used to think it was a great place for housewives to go and take some tennis lessons. I never really thought too much about the community it serves or the value it provides, until after I started talking to Rose," he said.
Now that his view of the community college has changed, Fox said he wants to change others' perceptions as well, through visibility and public outreach.
As the cost of education becomes out of reach for more and more middle-income families, and even upper-middle-income families, two years of reduced-budget education is very helpful. "It is probably the only way that many people will achieve an education," Fox said.
Fox said he has always been interested in education and puts it at the top of the list of his philanthropic endeavors. He believes that poverty can be traced to the lack of education and that poverty itself could be eradicated through education.
Fox's strong sense of social justice arose during his early years in boarding schools. He attended prep school in Prairie du Chien, Wisc., a small town on the Mississippi River, where he was taught by the Jesuits. He said he received more than an academic education there. "I was enamored with the priests and what they were about--community and education," Fox said.
After he earned his bachelor's degree in commerce from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., he followed his father, who owned a brewery in Chicago, and attended the Siebel Institute of Technology, a brewmaster school in Chicago. There he learned that the fundamentals of brewing required mastering microbiology and agronomy.
"Mike wasn't very good at the scientific part," said his wife, Mary Ellen, who was a chemistry major at Barat College, a Catholic women's school in Lake Forest, Ill., and tutored Fox. The two married in 1959 and have six children, three boys and three girls, who range in age from 26 to 36.
Soon after completing their degrees, the couple moved from Chicago to South San Francisco, where Fox worked for five years before starting his own company in San Jose. He said he soon tired of the commute and they began looking for something closer to the business. Their search ended in Saratoga, where they found the perfect five-bedroom house for their growing brood. Mary Ellen said it was a stretch for them at the time, with a new business, four kids and little money, to make the $400 monthly payment.
They lived there for 20 years before moving to their current home on Quito Road, which they purchased from Anthony Ridder, former publisher of the San Jose Mercury News. The meticulously kept four-acre spread boasts a swimming pool, tennis court and 340 rose bushes that Fox said he never cuts, but enjoys for their color.
The home is the perfect setting for entertaining, which they do frequently for their various political and social causes, with guest lists often exceeding 300 people. Fox is involved in numerous community organizations, including the San Jose Rotary Club, the Tech Museum of Innovation, United Way, San Jose Chamber of Commerce and Villa Montalvo.
The spacious back yard has also served as a backdrop for four children's weddings.
Fox reminisced about the weddings, candidly admitting as he thumbed through their photo albums that he wasn't a very attentive father when his children were growing up. "I don't think I ever changed more than one diaper with all of my kids," he said.
Mary Ellen said that she and her husband had divergent methods of raising children and that Mike's was very rule-oriented, a product of his youth, so most of the discipline and child-rearing was left to her. However, Fox said he's making up for lost time now by being a more visible, attentive and indulgent grandfather to his 10 grandchildren.
The one place in which all of them have had a hand is the family business. Over the years all of them have worked there in some capacity, Fox said. Currently, his oldest son, Mike Fox Jr., is the vice president and general manager, and son Dennis is vice president of operations.
In some ways Fox Jr. said that having his father as his boss is the same as having him for a father. "He will blow up about something and then be over with it, just like when we were kids."
Another childhood memory was his dad's involvement in the community. "My dad was always dragging us to something when we were kids," Fox Jr. said. Even though he admitted the experience didn't have much impact on any of them as kids, because of their parents' example, all of the Fox children are involved in some kind of community functions.
Fox Jr. said when his father gets involved, he makes things happen. "He is a 'take charge' guy. If you want something done, he's the guy who can do it." He added that his dad would never ask anyone to do anything he wouldn't do himself. "He has a moral and ethical vision of how things could be done, and he respects cultural differences."
This sentiment is echoed by Ron Gonzales, education program manager for Hewlett-Packard. Gonzales has known Fox for eight years and has worked with him on various causes. "Mike is known for his personal causes, and people respect him as an individual and his judgment," Gonzales said. "When Mike Fox calls, people respond to him because they know he picks efforts that are important to the community."
Chancellor Tseng agreed and added, "We are fortunate to have friends like Mike Fox. He is a leader who is involved and committed to improving education in our district. He has a lot of exciting plans for the foundation, which include building Mission College's technology center, where all students will have access to a computer in the student union."
"Not only does he put his money where his mouth is," Fox Jr. said, "he puts his time where his mouth is."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 19, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.