Lawrence "Larry" Fox

Lawrence “Larry” Fox, a native of New York City, acted as a young boy in several Broadway productions. He enrolled at Black Mountain College in the spring of 1943. While a student, he participated in the admissions committee, and drama productions such as Elves and the Shoemaker, "3 Plays", and participated in the football team, then known as the Prehistoric Specimens.

He left in October 1943 to serve in the Navy. He played baseball to entertain the troops. He returned to Black Mountain in the spring of 1946 and remained for the 1946-47 academic year.

He graduated from Syracuse University. He received his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the University of Michigan. Fox was executive director for a consortium of ten colleges and vice chancellor for university relations at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Fox died in 2007 and was survived by his long-time companion, Mirande Geissbuhler Holl, whom he had met at Black Mountain College.

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

Relationships

Dated fellow BMC student, Mirande Geissbuhler

Asheville Art Museum

Writings about Larry can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers:

2017.40.133 November 15, 1943 bulletin,

"Larry Fox writes from the United States Naval Construction Training Center at Camp Peary near Williamsburg, Virginia: “For the most part, my boot training is complete….. My training was indeed simple. I proved to be in good condition due to Eukinetics and the Work Program. My only sore spot was my right arm….. the arm they filled with typhoid, tetanus, and yellow fever….. Practically all the men in my barracks are older, married men of some special skill in construction work. My closest friends are an Indian from California and a witty Irishman from Boston; our threesome manages to keep laughing most of the time….. My acquaintance with those men greatly helped me in my adjustment to the place. I do feel completely adapted to the men and Seabee system….. I haven’t the least idea of what sort of advanced training I will receive. I am, however, pretty certain that I will not make V-12 because of my bad eyesight…If I am stationed anywhere near school, I will visit on my ten-day leave. This leave should be given me around the 16th. In spite of what they tell you, nothing is definite so I can’t be sure about this leave….My regards to the community…”"

2017.40.141 January 24, 1944 bulletin,

"Larry Fox writes form Camp Endicott in Rhode Island: “At present I am in the replacement center awaiting battalion. I have no idea as to how long I shall be here. The length of a replacement stay varies from one week to one year. The Navy keeps me busy doing menial jobs but I have much more free time then when I was in a battalion….The Seabees do a regular weekly broadcast over a Providence hookup. Today I saw the man in charge and read script for him. He liked my work and seemed to think I might be able to be assigned to that department. It all depends on my being able to convince the Lieutenant at the head of the Welfare and Recreation Department that I deserve a transfer….The man just popped in here and informed me that I have a part in Tuesdays broadcast. The part is small, but at least I’m doing radio work and it will bring me to the attention of the Lieutenant.”"

2017.40.203 May 22, 1945 bulletin,

"Larry Fox writes from the Mariannas on May 5: “Our outfit has been going like mad ever since we arrived here. We still work ten hours a day and put in six and a half days per week. I recently was removed from the cement gang of which I was a charter member. We did everything that can be done with bags of cement; unloaded trucks full of them, stacked them, then, after mixing the stuff, poured the cement. I haven’t been out here long enough to qualify as an old-timer, but I can imagine that there is nothing harder than handling cement the Navy way....Almost all of our factory is complete. This means that, as soon as we receive the necessary steel, we will begin to turn our pontoons. That may place me at the end of a welding torch; and, then again, it may not. There are still lots of jobs besides welding around here....This climate makes you kind of dopey after a while, especially when you have to spend all day in the sun, as most of us must. The nights are cool, however, and sleep comes easily....All things considered, our standard of living is high, what with hot showers, running water toilets, Quonset huts to live in, and a better-than-average commissary department....The Bulletins are still the best reading material in the Pacific....”"