Remembering Dr. Larry Fox

March 24, 1938 - December 12, 2025

Larry was born on March 24, 1938, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Phillip and Frieda Fox. He was the youngest of three children. His siblings were Sondra and Sydney. His parents were in the men’s clothing business, and like many businesses of the time, all 5 of them lived in an apartment upstairs. His parents were from large families, with seven siblings on each side, so Sundays were a time when everyone gathered at one of his grandparents’ homes and came together around the piano as his uncle played. While he had many happy memories, he also recounted how afraid he was as a child during the war, when living on the East Coast meant nightly blackouts and air raid warnings were regular occurrences. And where as a child, he was picked on and beaten up because he was Jewish. He recalled his teenage years were much like the Barry Levinsohn movie about Baltimore, called “Diner”. The kids all frequented the diner and the pool hall nearby. His older brother Sydney hung out with the street-wise crowd, and Larry idolized the street-savvy ways of his brother, but dared not follow in his footsteps.

After high school, Larry went to the University of Maryland and received a BA in Sociology. While he was in college, he met a young woman, Norma, and in 1960, they were married. He entered the School of Dentistry at the University of Maryland, and two years later, his daughter Wendy was born. After graduating from dental school, he enlisted as a Captain in the Air Force and was stationed at Wilford Hall Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. His second daughter, Sharon, was born there. This was at the beginning of the escalation of the Vietnam War, and he was part of the daily processing of hundreds of young men who had been drafted. He recalled how painful it was to see these 18-year-old men, some sobbing as he examined their teeth, to prepare them for war.

When he was discharged from the Air Force, he decided to specialize in pediatric dentistry. He was awarded a two-year fellowship at the Eastman Center of the University of Rochester. When his training was completed, he moved back to Baltimore to begin a career in academics, working at the John F. Kennedy Institute of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. There, he developed training to educate dentists to work with special needs children and adults.

To further his career, he also took classes while he was working at Johns Hopkins and received a Master's in Public Health and a Master's in Education. However, while he was advancing academically, his personal life suffered, and his marriage ended.

Soon after, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he became Chairman of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at Case Western Reserve University. Also at that time, because he was suffering from the loss of his marriage, he began to examine his life. And he began a 5-year journey of psychoanalysis, 5 days a week. In Cleveland, he met Leslie on a blind date, and in 1982, they married.

Larry and Leslie shared many interests in the arts, including the culinary arts. They each opened art studios in a renovated turn-of-the-century school building. While Leslie worked as a fiber artist, Larry worked as a stone carver. His studio was in the basement in the “coal room”, which he found intriguing, and it became the highlight of studio tours.

Also during this time, Larry developed a special interest in gourmet food preparation and studied at one of the noted cooking schools in Northern Ohio. He eventually became a member of La Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs, a worldwide gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1248. Throughout all these varied artistic pursuits, he maintained a partnership in a large pediatric dental practice. His week was full, never a dull moment with 3 days in his office, 2 days in his studio, and 2 days to cook and cater. And he began to realize that something in his life had to change… and that he didn’t know how to change it.

A series of “life-transforming” events, including cervical spine surgery, the death of his father, the death of his partner in the dental practice, and finally another cervical spine injury, brought life as he knew it to a halt. However, he was 49 years old and not ready to retire. He loved the pursuit of higher education, and even though he already had 5 graduate degrees, he began pursuing a PhD in Psychology – something he had wanted to do for a long time.

Then a pivotal moment in his life occurred during this time. It happened when he walked into a New Age bookstore for the first time, looking for a book he heard about titled: A Course in Miracles. But when he saw it on the bookshelf, it looked like a bible, causing him to turn and walk straight to a rack of audio tapes. And then one fell off the rack onto the floor in front of

him – and it was titled: “How to Know a Course in Miracles”. He thought: “Great - I can get all I need to know from this tape and not have to read that book.” So he got in his car, plugged in the tape, and what he heard struck him to his core. This is what he heard:

“Forgiveness recognizes that what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees that there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven. What is sin, except a false idea about God's son? Forgiveness merely sees its falsity and therefore lets it go. What then is free to take its place is now the will of God.”

Larry reflected that he felt like he was struck by lightning. He pulled into the driveway, walked into the kitchen, dropped off the bag of groceries, and told Leslie that he was getting back in his car and wasn’t sure what time he would be home. Something very big had happened to him. From this moment, he realized he must meet this person who spoke those words. He

found out where this person, whose name was Tara Singh, lived and made plans to go to a retreat that he was offering. What he learned from the years of sharing Tara Singh offered gave him the clarity to know that his life was to be of service to others. And through Tara Singh’s teachings he ultimately came to Anthroposophy.

While these changes were taking place in Larry’s life, Leslie had begun having thoughts about her future and explored becoming a Waldorf teacher. It was that exploration in the early 1990’s that brought the two of them to Spring Valley in order for Leslie to pursue a degree in Waldorf education.

Larry was immediately drawn to the Fellowship Community. On his first day as he stood in the parking lot at Hilltop House, he fell in love with the community and realized that what was missing in his life was a sense of community. He devoted himself to working daily at the Fellowship for the three years that Leslie was in school. When she graduated and accepted a

position at the Waldorf School of Baltimore, Larry willingly moved to Baltimore. He was eager to reconnect with the family he had once spent so many Sundays with. During that time, he volunteered at the Waldorf School and had a counseling practice. But he often spoke of his wish to return to the Fellowship.

When September 11, 2001 changed all our lives, Larry said: “We have to go back to the Fellowship.” Leslie agreed but only if she could get a job at Green Meadow. She was hired by Green Meadow, and in June of 2002, they returned to Spring Valley.

Once again, Larry dove into all the activities of the Fellowship. For twenty years, he was active in all the circles of life - the bakery, the wood shop, the pottery, the executive circle, seeing counseling patients in the medical office, giving tours on Saturdays, and working with the cultural council.

The onset of the Covid 19 pandemic, along with his declining health, led to a halt in his participation in group activities. And when activities resumed at the Fellowship, Larry’s health issues began restricting what he was able to do. Therefore, in 2022, he decided to retire from his counseling practice, and due to the progression of Parkinson's Disease, he gave up all the activities that he loved so much.

He continued to occasionally paint, draw, and work in the pottery up until February 2024, when he moved into Hilltop House.

Larry had a rich inner spiritual life, and even though his physical capacities declined, he continued to make connections with people. He was a teacher to the very end, inspiring others and humbly offering nuggets of wisdom.

He often reflected on how deeply grateful he was for the blessing of living at Hilltop House and for the love and care he received, where those who cared for him looked beyond the physical to meet his spirit with dignity. And – he really loved the food.

Larry's biography was written by Leslie Burchell-Fox

---

To make a gift to the Fellowship Community in honor of Larry Fox please visit

fellowshipcommunity.org/donate