Remembering Sam Fox

Photo: Sam and Marilyn Fox with students at the 2011 Scholarship Dinner.

Ambassador Sam Fox, a prominent St. Louis businessman who was the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, died on Monday. He was 95. 

Sam and his wife Marilyn established the Sam and Marilyn Fox Foundation Scholarship Fund at Webster University in 1988. These scholarships provide direct, essential support to financially disadvantaged students and the Fox Scholarships have had a transformative effect on the lives of the recipients. 

In addition to their generous annual support, Sam and Marilyn made a significant leadership gift to support student scholarships in perpetuity, establishing The Sam and Marilyn Fox Endowed Scholarship Fund in 2012, an endowed scholarship that supports Webster University undergraduate degree-seeking students with demonstrated financial need in any of our Schools/Colleges. 

Additionally, The Marilyn R. Fox Endowed Scholarship was created in 2015 with gifts from the Fox’s children to support a student in the Conservatory of Theatre Arts in the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts. The Fox children shared "We, your children, have created this scholarship in honor of everything that you do for Webster University, its students, and for the Arts in St. Louis."

As a couple, the Fox’s also supported organizations throughout St. Louis and around the world, including the St. Louis Art Museum, Boy Scouts of America, United Way, Barnes Hospital, Civic Progress and other key organizations.

Sam Fox also served as a keynote speaker for the George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology Dean’s Speaker Series, and was a frequent guest at Webster University events, often accompanying his wife.

Marilyn, who served as a Webster Trustee and had been honored by the University many times, passed away earlier this year. Sam was also preceded in death by his eldest daughter Cheri and his son Greg. He is survived by a daughter, Pamela Fox Claman (Aba), of Jerusalem; two sons — Jeff (Lotta) and Steven (Nan), both of St. Louis; and 15 grandchildren. 

Funeral services will be at 1:15 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8 at Congregation Temple Israel, #1 Alvan Rubin Drive, Creve Coeur. Burial will be private. Shiva will be observed from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8 in Anabeth and John Weil Hall, part of Washington University St. Louis’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts on the Danforth Campus. His full obituary can be found in the St. Louis Jewish Light.