Renee C. Fox, Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences, Emerita Senior Fellow of the Center for Bioethics, and professor emerita of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, died September 23 from leukemia. She was 92. 

Dr. Fox, a medical sociologist whose teaching and research focused on sociology of medicine, medical research, medical education, and medical ethics, carried out firsthand, participant observation-based studies in the United States, Continental Europe, Central Africa, and the People’s Republic of China.

Dr. Fox graduated summa cum laude from Smith College in 1949 and earned a PhD in sociology from Radcliffe College, now part of Harvard University, in 1954. She went on to become a member of the Columbia University Bureau of Applied Social Research, and then taught for 12 years at Barnard College before spending two years as a visiting lecturer in the department of social relations at Harvard. She also spent one year as a visiting professor at the University of Oxford.

She joined the sociology department at Penn as a full professor in 1969. She served as the chair of the sociology department from 1972 to 1978. Ultimately, she held joint secondary appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine’s departments of psychiatry and medicine, in Wharton, and in the School of Nursing.

In 1998, she became the Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences (Almanac June 16, 1998). Dr. Fox was also an Emerita Senior Fellow of the Center for Bioethics. The annual Renee C. Fox Lecture in Medicine was established in her honor.

Dr. Fox received numerous teaching awards, including the E. Harris Harbison Gifted Teaching Award of the Danforth Foundation, and a Lindback Foundation Award for Teaching from Penn (Almanac April 4, 1989).

Her books examined topics including attitude formation among medical students, training for uncertainty, organ transplants, and bioethics. She was an elected member of numerous scientific organizations, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an Honorary Member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. She was also a recipient of the American Sociological Association’s Leo G. Reeder Award for Distinguished Contributions to Medical Sociology as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. She held 11 honorary degrees, and in 1995, the Belgian Government named her Chevalier of the Order of Leopold II.

She is survived by her sister, Rosa Fox Gellert (Robert); sister-in-law, Geraldine Z. Fox; nieces and nephews, Yvonne G. Lerew, David B. Spohngellert (Leine), Nicholas P. Gellert (Tamara), Paul K. Gellert (Rinta), Mindy Fox, and Susan Hallenbeck (Brian); great-nieces; great-nephews; and devoted caregivers, including Alzie Henry and Keyonia Renton.

The department of sociology together with the department of medical ethics and health policy at Penn are in the early stages of planning a memorial remembrance ceremony. Details will be shared as soon as they are available.

Contributions in her memory may be made to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania for the Endowment of the Renee C. Fox Lectureship in Medicine, Culture and Society.