Robert (Bob) Allen Fox, C’52, an emeritus trustee and longtime donor to Penn, died peacefully on April 14. He was 91.

Mr. Fox grew up in the Germantown and Mount Airy neighborhoods of Philadelphia and graduated from Germantown Central High School, where he was captain of the football team. He studied economics at Penn, playing football under Coach George Munger when 70,000 to 80,000 fans regularly packed Franklin Field. After graduating in 1952, Mr. Fox formed a home construction company with his brother Richard. Together they built houses across the Philadelphia region, and in 1961, Mr. Fox was elected president of the Philadelphia Home Builders Association. Afterwards, Mr. Fox joined Warner Concrete Company, serving as its president until 1979.

In 1979, Mr. Fox left Warner and founded RAF Industries with the acquisition of a lumber yard in Wilmington, Delaware. RAF Industries was a private investment company that helped grow numerous companies in a diverse range of fields. Later, he helped Warner Concrete Company transform into Waste Resources Corporation, which, as its chair, he developed into a national, publicly-traded firm. Mr. Fox also served on several boards of directors in the business and banking spheres. He and his brother Richard earned Temple University’s Musser Award for Excellence in Leadership in 2007, partly due to this service.

Mr. Fox was first elected to Penn’s Board of Trustees in 1985. At various points, he served as vice chair, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, and a member of the Executive, Nominating, Facilities and Campus Planning, and Audit and Compliance committees. Mr. Fox was heavily involved with other governance at Penn, including the Athletics Board of Advisors and the Penn Medicine Board. In the School of Arts and Sciences, he endowed three professorships and six scholarships and fellowships, including four Frederic Fox scholarships named after Mr. Fox’s father.

In 2013, Mr. Fox established and permanently endowed the Fox Leadership Program, which oversees New Student Orientation and inspires and equips undergraduates to assume leadership roles in their future endeavors. In 2015, the Robert and Penny Fox Family Pavilion was formally dedicated in honor of Mr. Fox and his wife, Penny Fox, ED’53. Mr. Fox also chaired the board and generously donated to the Wistar Institute, which dedicated its Robert and Penny Fox Tower in 2014. In 1999, Mr. Fox won Penn Alumni’s Award of Merit.

Mr. Fox was heavily involved with civic life in the city of Philadelphia, serving on the boards of several local institutions. He and his wife Penny established the Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection at Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. They were also significant donors to the Moore College of Art and Design, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Ballet. Their impact on the city of Philadelphia’s life, arts and culture, education, and medicine is profound.

Mr. Fox is survived by his wife Penny and their children, Debra, Nancy (Jon Edwards), Amy (Edward Wheeler), and Kenneth (Ana), as well as nine grandchildren. Due to the ongoing pandemic, services for Bob are private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his memory to the Wistar Institute (wistar.org/robertfox) or the University of Pennsylvania (https://giving.aws.cloud.upenn.edu).