Jo Anne S. Fox, who died Aug. 19, 2012, after a brief illness, was a retired Northern Illinois University theatre directing professor who was generous with suggestions, yet demanding in performance.

She is remembered by a fellow faculty member as "a tireless, selfless person devoted to the entire student body; a full professor who, late at night, could even be seen putting up posters for a high school drama workshop."

Even after her students graduated, she continued to mentor them and followed their careers with great delight.

Professor Fox was the former head of the MFA directing program at NIU, where she also served on various faculty governing bodies.

After retiring from NIU, she continued teaching in the NIU Lifetime Learning Institute, offering a theatre course, "From Script to Stage: The Art of Making Theatre," and a course about culinary delights, concentrating on her favorite, chocolate.

A warm and welcoming hostess, always with more than enough food, Mrs. Fox might conclude a dinner with a theatrical entrance of a great chocolate desert. As well as cooking and entertaining, she loved reading mysteries, her garden, traveling and, most of all, being with her family.

After her graduation from Northwestern University, her teaching career began when she taught English at a Rockford high school. She then moved to DeKalb where she taught English and theater at the NIU laboratory school. In 1972, when the lab school closed, she transferred to the NIU theater department.

Soon after arriving at NIU, she married Arnold B. Fox of the NIU English department on August 11, 1963, in Elgin.

During her years on the NIU faculty, she spent several sabbaticals in London, a city she loved, taking classes, adapting plays, and attending the theater. After she earned an M.F.A. in directing at the Ealing Drama Studio, while on sabbatical, her career took a new path.

While she was a devoted lover of Shakespeare?s plays, the plays she directed at NIU ranged from classics to the most contemporary playwrights.

Mrs. Fox was devoted to the DeKalb community as well as to the theatre. She was an active and long-time member of the DeKalb Drama Club and of Congregation Beth Shalom in DeKalb, where she served in many roles until a few weeks before her death. She also recently served on the fundraising committees for the Egyptian Theatre and for the DeKalb Public Library, making many presentations for each of them.

She is survived by her son, Sam Fox (the late Beverly Fox) of Chicago, and her daughter, Reva Fox (Joel Blumin) of Milwaukee, a sister, Lee Winograd, a brother, Don Stone, and five grandchildren, Deena Fox Birnbaum (Andrew Birnbaum), Tamar Fox, Renana Fox, Abigail Blumin, and Nathaniel Blumin.

She was the daughter of Ella Rose Friedberg and Charles C. Stone. Her husband and parents predeceased her.

She died in Milwaukee where her daughter, Reva, lives.

The funeral will be Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. in DeKalb -- with Rabbi Maralee Gordon officiating -- at Ronan-Moore-Finch Funeral Home, 310 Oak, 815-758-3841.

Friends may call at the Fox home from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, August 22 and 23. A short evening service will be held at 7:30 p.m. each evening.

In lieu of flowers. contributions in her memory may be made to the Arnold & Jo Anne Fox Fund at Congregation Beth Shalom, P.O. Box 1177, DeKalb, IL 60115.

Service:
Wednesday August 22, 2012

10:30 a.m.

Ronan-Moore-Finch Funeral Home,
Visitation:
Wednesday August 22, & Thursday August 23, 2012

7 to 9 p.m.

Fox home