Clifton Harry Fox

Clifton Harry Fox, of Groesbeck, Texas, went home to be with the Lord on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 at age 89. He passed away peacefully in his sleep at his son’s home. For the past nine years, Clif had lived with, and was under the care of his daughter-in-law and son, Brenda and Clifton Fox, who is a minister for the Church of Christ in Groesbeck. Dad (or “gray-pa” as our family called him) really loved going to worship to sing and hear his son preach. The family is honoring their father’s wish to be cremated and for his cremains to be buried next to his wife, Joan, in Lebanon Cemetery in Lebanon, Ohio. A Celebration of Life/Memorial service will be held in Groesbeck on Saturday, January 7, 2017, at 2:00 P.M., at the Church of Christ in Groesbeck, with Richard Williams and his son, Clif Fox officiating. Another Celebration of Life/Memorial Service will be held in Lebanon, Ohio on the following Saturday, January 14, 2017, at 2:00 P.M., at the Church of Christ. Burial will follow immediately in the Lebanon Cemetery. Clifton was born April 26, 1927 in Germantown, Ohio to Edgar Herbert Fox and Sadie Wolfe Fox. He grew up in Ohio and worked in Dayton, Ohio during his entire career. During World War II he served in the Army Air-core. He was a part of the invasion entering Germany through Italy. He served as an MP, and was injured in the war, during his military service. After World War II, he moved back to Dayton and worked at National Cash Register Co. as a machinist, and in later years was a supervisor in Quality Control. He met his wife, Joan, while working at NCR with her. Clif was united in marriage to Charlotte Joan Apking on May 3, 1952, in Dayton, where they lived and raised their family. While his children were young, Clif worked the 3:00 pm to Midnight shift. So, each day as the kids got home from school, mom was preparing his lunch box and sending him out the door to work. Each day as he left for work, he always kissed us kids good-bye, and always –without fail – would return home that night with candy treats or trinkets for his kids in his lunchbox for us to find the next morning when we got up. Clif had four of his own biological children: Terry, Becky, Clifton and Katherine. However, Clif and Joan also brought many other kids into their home to raise as their own. Eddie Fox, Sally Platfoot and John Austin were among the kids they opened their home to while they were young teens. Our doors were always open to anyone who had a need, especially those of our extended family. When NCR closed down it’s Dayton Factory Complex, 27 large factory buildings were closed and torn down; and 19,000 employees’ jobs were moved to China. However, they kept Clif as one of the 300 final employees left, due to his loyalty and hard work ethic with the company. Eventually, after 37 years with NCR, they offered him retirement. When Clif retired, he and Joan moved to their grandparents’ family cottage on Filburns Island on Lake Loramie north of Dayton. He worked at a small factory there for several more years. Eventually, he really did retire, and they moved to Ocala, Florida, where he built a home near his brother. Clif and Joan enjoyed frequent social times playing games of Pinnacle and Euchre with the family and at the Senior Center. After a generous lifetime of providing a home for others, Clif and Joan eventually moved into the homes of his son Clifton and Brenda, during winters, and his daughter Katherine and Joseph, during summers, because they needed assistance with health problems. After Joan passed away in 2007, Clif began to live year-round at his son, Clifton’s, home. He and his son’s family all settled in in Groesbeck, Texas, in 2013, when his son, Clifton, started preaching at the Church of Christ in Groesbeck. Clif and Joan were both baptized by their son, Clif, in 1982, and worshipped with the Church of Christ wherever they lived afterwards, including membership in the Church of Christ at Groesbeck. Clif was preceded in death by his parents, Edgar and Sadie Fox; his wife, Charlotte Joan Fox; sister, Mary Long; brother, Edgar Fox, Jr.; son, Eddie Fox; and daughters, Rebecca Ambler and Sally Platfoot. He is survived by his son and daughter in law, Clifton Louis and Brenda Fox of Groesbeck; daughter and son-in-law, Katherine and Joseph Grilliot of New Weston, Ohio; son, Terrence L. Harrington of Zephyrhills, FL; son and daughter-in-law, John and Carrie Austin of Dayton, Ohio. He leaves behind sixteen grandchildren: Sabrina, Nathan, Amber, David, John, Taylar, Cindy, Angie, Roy, Robbie, and Tamara; and many adopted grandchildren; nineteen great grandchildren; and six great-great grandchildren.