Mr. Robert Fox

A native of St. Louis, Bob Fox served in The United States Air Force from 1962 to 1966. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business and economics from Drury University in 1968 and received his master’s degree in business administration from Saint Louis University in 1976. Fox founded NewSpace Closet Interiors in 1984. Today NewSpace, Inc. is also a full-service contract furniture dealer and provides fixtures to the retail trade.

In 2005, Fox and his wife Maxine Clark, a former president of Payless ShoeSource and the founder of Build-A-Bear Workshops, created the Clark-Fox Family Foundation to support the St. Louis community in areas vital to regional growth and prosperity. In 2015, the foundation launched Blueprint4SummerSTL, a mobile app that brings access to summer programs to low-income families. It received the 2016 Gateway for Giving Excellence in Innovation in Philanthropy Award.

Fox and Clark are founding sponsors of Teach For America in the St. Louis region and the first Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools in St. Louis. In 2006, they funded the Maxine Clark and Bob Fox Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. They also endowed the Chair of the Dean of Goldfarb School of Nursing and established a professorship in the name of Raymond and Alberta Slavin at Saint Louis University. They received the 2011 Jane and Whitney Harris Community Service Award, as well as the 2013 NCCJ Brotherhood/Sisterhood Award, the 2013 One Hundred Black Men Educational Award, the 2014 Saint Louis University Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Leadership Award, and the 2015 Better Family Life Civic/Community Award. In 2015, they funded the Maxine Clark and Bob Fox Policy Institute and Forum at the Brown School at Washington University, where they also sponsor the Fox-Clark Civic Scholars program. Fox has served on the Board of Trustees of Saint Louis University since 2006. He also serves as a member of the Education Committee at the St. Louis Zoo.

Fox is the Founder and past Chair of the Board of Casa de Salud, a not-for-profit health and wellness center that welcomes new immigrants out of isolation and into the embrace of the community. It opened its doors in January of 2010 and today serves more than 12,000 patient visits annually. He is also the Founding Chair of the Board of inspireSTL a not-for-profit educational initiative that assists bright, socio-economically challenged, middle school children in urban underperforming schools with the goal of bringing them back to their communities as transformational leaders.

Fox serves on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Taskforce on Immigration for the Midwest. In 2012, he was instrumental in establishing and still serves on the steering committee of the St. Louis Regional Taskforce on Immigration and Innovation, which launched The St. Louis Mosaic Project in 2013.

In 2011, Fox received the Hispanic Leaders Group Premio Esperanza – Hope Award and the St. Louis Award. He also received the 2012 St. Louis World Trade Center’s Global Ambassador Award, and was inducted into the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University Smurfit-Stone Entrepreneurial Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2014, he received the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. State Celebration Commission of Missouri Distinguished Humanitarian Award. Bob is the recipient of the 2015 Gerry and Bob Virgil Ethic of Service Award and the Niagara Foundation 2015 Peace and Dialogue “Commitment” Award.