Dixon Ryan Fox
Twelfth president of Union College, July 1, 1934 - January 30, 1945
A native of Potsdam, New York, Dixon Ryan Fox was born on December 7, 1887. Fox graduated from the Potsdam State Normal School at nineteen. Enrolling in Columbia (AB, 1911), he remained there to take an AM (1912) and a PhD (1917) in history. He had by then (1912) joined the history faculty.
An accomplished lecturer, and lively writer and exceptionally productive scholar, Fox built a career as an American historian that might have been expected to keep him at Columbia all his life. His dissertation became one of his best books, The decline of aristocracy in the politics of New York (1919), followed by An historical atlas of the United States (1920), An outline of early American history (1922), and Caleb Heathcote, gentleman colonist: the story of a career in the Province of New York, 1692-1721 (1922). Fox prepared the final volumes of Herbert Levi Osgood’s (his father-in-law) The American colonies in the seventeenth century and then wrote his biography, Herbert Levi Osgood, an American scholar (1924).
Fox’s strong interest in New York State history led to his 1929 election as president of the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown, a position he held for the rest of his life. He is also credited with spurring creation of the Farmer’s Museum and the New York Folklore Society.
In light of his work with the New York State Historical Association, Fox’s name was mentioned as a prominent candidate for the presidency of the College. The trustees elected him president on February 22, 1934; he took office July 1, and was inaugurated October 12.
Lingering effects of the Depression precluded any expensive initiatives, and the Second World War first made planning impossible and then turned the campus into a training ground. Fox became devoted to making the College less parochial. He invited distinguished lecturers to the campus, established an early form of a scholar-in-residence program and set up the Saint Andrew Exchange. Most importantly, he strove to bring in new chairmen with strong experience, such as Harold Bibber, James Cline, George Danton, Burges Johnson and Benjamin Whitaker.
Fox already knew a great deal about Union’s history before he took office, and he did much, as the first professional historian to serve as president, to advance the College’s awareness of its past. He reinvigorated the annual Founder’s Day celebration and began to focus it on a person or topic connected with Union’s past.
The Second World War, which saw Union’s enrollment first depleted by the draft and enlistments and then swollen by the Navy V-12 training program, greatly increased the burden on the president. Constant changes were the norm and long-term planning became almost impossible.
At the beginning of 1945, with the war nearing its end, but with the campus still almost entirely given over to officer training, plans remained incomplete for the celebration in September of Union’s 150th anniversary. With his customary boldness in public relations, Fox invited President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, both descendents of Union alumni. Fox, however, never saw the plans come to fruition. While attending a meeting at General Electric on plans for General Electrics Summer Institutes for Teachers, he suffered a fatal heart attack.
His last book, nearly completed, was published as Union College, an unfinished history (1945).
Benjamin Whitaker served as Acting President from February 1945 until February 1946 when Carter Davidson was elected president.
Condensed from Wayne Somers, compiler and editor, Encyclopedia of Union College History (Schenectady: Union College Press, 2003), page 654.
Image courtesy of Union College, Schaffer Library Special Collections and Archives, Photograph Collection