Wendell James "Jim" Fox Jr.

Jim was born April 21, 1960, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Wendell James Fox Sr. and Mary Margaret Maxey. He graduated from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor in 1978, attended the University of Michigan, and received a B.S. in Statistics in 1982. He was a member of the Trigon Fraternity during his four years of college.

Jim started his career at the Naval Intelligence Support Center in Washington D.C. as a Statistician/Programmer and moved to Colorado in 1985 for a software engineering job with Martin Marietta. From 1987-1992, he moved several times for jobs with Arvin Calspan in Sunnyvale, Northrop in Chicago, and DEC in Colorado Springs.

In the fall of 1990, he met the love of his life Jolene Jacobsen who was living in Lakewood, Colorado, through a personal ad in a local Colorado Springs weekly periodical. They dated for a year between the two locations before DEC transferred him to Boston, after which they kept dating very long distance. Jolene helped him find a job back in Colorado in 1992, and they married on March 20, 1993, at the Avery House in Fort Collins, Colorado.

From 1992-1999, Jim held software/systems engineering and database jobs at Unidata, Computer Data Systems, Convergent Group, and various other companies. From 1999-2001, he worked and traveled extensively for Oracle, and from 2001-2003 briefly moved out-of-state for jobs at South Florida Water Management District in West Palm Beach and Joint Intelligence Center Pacific in Honolulu. He returned to Colorado in 2003 for a job at Northrop Grumman, and from 2007-2022 he held contract jobs with Aspiration Software at Lockheed Martin, MBS at Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Xenity at National Park Service. He was granted a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification from (ISC)2 in 2003. His last job from 2022-2024 was as an IT Specialist with the ADF-C National Reconnaissance Office located at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora.

Jim loved hikes/walks, skiing, snowshoeing, cycling, swimming, scuba diving, rock hunting, traveling, attending IT conferences, watching Sci-Fi and adventure movies and collecting movie-making books about them (particularly Star Wars), listening to movie and TV show soundtracks by his favorite composers, rooting for the Michigan Wolverines (he was thrilled about the National Championship win on New Years Day), eating pizza and seafood, wearing a wide array of t-shirts, and just relishing the times spent with his wife, her extended family, his Fox relatives, and his network of friends.

Jim is survived by his wife Jolene, brothers-in law and sisters-in-law Lyden (Deborah) Jacobsen, Molly Davis, Lowell (Bonnie) Jacobsen, Heddy (Jack) Cary, and Janelle (Dave) Schell, a nephew Jon (Jill) Hsieh, aunt Marion Fox Ahrens, many Fox cousins, and many nieces and nephews on his wife’s side. He is also survived by his best friend and best man at his wedding Sergio Cuadros. Jim was preceded in death by his parents, sister Judith Hsieh, step-granduncle Fritz Schleyer, parents-in-law Earl and Sybel Jacobsen, brother-in-law Jay Davis, and all but one of his Fox aunts and uncles.

Jim was a sweet, good-natured, sensitive soul with a quirky sense of humor and zest for life. He thrived on learning and would talk with anyone about anything. He formed many long-lasting friendships during his youth and college days in Ann Arbor and through the many jobs he held during his career. He treasured all his relationships with family and friends and kept people close. His future plans and dreams were cut all too short, and he will be dearly missed by his wife and those who loved and knew him.

A celebration of life for Jim may be planned at a later time. Some of his ashes will be on an earth rise rocket launch in 2024. In lieu of flowers, donations in his honor can be made to Childrens Hospital Colorado.