John Fox announces retirement

After thirty-eight years on a college campus John Fox (pictured at left) believes students haven’t changed all that much. Of course there is more technology to work with but the human elements have remained fairly static.

Fox, who has been teaching forestry at UAF since 1973, will retire in May. He is pleased with the way his career and life have played out. “It worked out great,” he said. His favorite class to teach has been a graduate level course in biometeorology. “It kept me sharp,” he said. “The students are interested and motivated.”

Fox has also taught environmental ethics and watershed management for many years.

His research has focused on hydrology, modeling, and landscape-level management. One of the first projects he got involved in was assessing water levels at Harding Lake and he has continued that research to this day. “The work is mostly done,” he said. “I’ll be writing updates and making them available.”

The research at Harding Lake has been comparable to working on a detective story, Fox said. “We examined how the lake works and why it went lower. It was fun looking for clues.”

SNRAS Dean Carol Lewis said, “John is a scholar and a gentleman. He has taught the widest array of classes of any of our faculty and done so with an excellence that provided him the honor of being a much deserved recipient of the Usibelli award for excellence in teaching in 2009. He has contributed in so many ways to the school and the experiment station and UAF from the Forest Sports Festival to involvement as advisor in the NCAA athletic program. We can certainly replace his position, but we can never replace John Fox. I wish him well as he exits the formal academic train, lingers in the woods for a while, and begins to explore new intellectual paths in strike his fancy, to quote his own closing words in his letter informing me of his imminent retirement.”

Forest Sciences Department Chair John Yarie said Dr. Fox was one of the first forestry faculty in the school. “He was key in developing the environmental ethics course. He has also led the effort to gain and maintain national accreditation for the UAF forestry program from the Society of American Foresters.”

Yarie said he will remember Fox’s good nature, friendship, and high quality of teaching. “And the times when we won the crosscut sawing competition” in the Forest Sports Festival.

Fox is very dedicated to students, Yarie said. “He was able to ask them questions that made them think and possibly challenged their past assumptions.”

What does retirement hold for Fox? He will continue his academic pursuits and spend time with his family. No major travel is on the agenda but the Fox’s might spend more time at their cottage in Connecticut. “And there is a growing honey-do list at home,” Fox said.

Asked if he wishes anything had been different, Fox said, “I have no regrets about Alaska or Fairbanks or the university. I wish I had published more but I will continue with that after I retire.”


(Above photograph of John Fox: UAF photo by Todd Paris)