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Joel Fox (1855–1936)

After nearly half a century of leadership among public trustees, Mr. Joel Fox, formerly general manager of the Equity Trustees, Executors, and Agency Co. Ltd., and chairman of Associated Trustees of Australia, died yesterday after a brief illness, at the age of 80 years. His death will cause widespread regret in financial and legal circles, where his mature judgment and the high ideals of his trusteeship were esteemed by very many friends.

Mr. Fox was born in December, 1855, in King William street, Fitzroy, and attended the old Model school in Spring street. He entered, as an office boy, the offices of his uncle, Mr. P. D. Phillips, solicitor, in 1868. He then served as a managing law clerk with several old legal firms in Melbourne, including Anderson and Sandilands, Lynch and McDonald, Stillman and Keep, and Eggleston, Derham, and Martin. He left the lastmentioned firm to take up the managership of the newly created Equity Trustees Co. in 1888.

It is the achievement of very few men to have built in their lifetime such a monument as that which the Equity Trustees now stands in relation to Mr. Fox. He entered its service at its inception in 1888, when his only assistant was an office boy, and he retired in August, 1933, leaving an organisation with a staff of more than 150, and business interests in every State of Australia.

In sporting circles, Mr. Fox will be long remembered through his close association with lacrosse. An enthusiastic player with the Albert Park club, he was for many years president of the Lacrosse Association of Victoria. He was a very old associate member of the Commercial Travellers' Association and a member of the Rotary Club of Melbourne. He leaves a widow (formerly Miss Edith Rennick, of England), a son (Mr. Charles Fox), and daughter (Mrs. N. McCance).

The funeral, which will be private, will be held to-day.

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Citation details

'Fox, Joel (1855–1936)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/fox-joel-13977/text24898, accessed 19 March 2024.

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