Fox, L. Webster (Lawrence Webster), 1853-1931

Lawrence Webster Fox was born on March 19, 1853 in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Dr. Thomas G. and Diana (Hershey) Fox. Fox graduated from the Pennsylvania State Normal School in 1875 and received his M.D. from Jefferson Medical College in 1878. Dr. Fox spent the next four years studying ophthalmology in Berlin, Austria, and London. After returning to the United States, he served as assistant ophthalmologist at Jefferson Medical College (1882-1885) and ophthalmic surgeon at Germantown Hospital (1883-93). Dr. Fox became a professor of ophthalmology at Medico-Chirurgical College in Philadelphia beginning in 1893 and later at the Graduate School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. A member of the Army Reserve Corps, Dr. Fox was also an officer of the Pennsylvania Home Teaching Society and Free Circulating Library for the Blind.

In September, 1889, Dr. Fox married Beatrice Bickerton of Liverpool, England. He had studied medicine in England with Miss Bickerton's brother, Herbert. Dr. and Mrs. Fox had three children: Beatrice, Thomas, and Lawrence Jr. Thomas died in 1894 at age two from diphtheria. In Dr. Fox's later years, his work took him to the western United States to treat the Blackfeet Indians. For his role in for bringing about the elimination of trachoma, an eye disease prevalent among native Americans, Dr. Fox was adopted into the Blackfeet tribe. L. Webster Fox died on June 4, 1931.