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The first of our Spring programs will take place on the campus of the University of Hartford, with a presentation on The Life of Beatrice Fox Auerbach by Professor Virginia Hale. We shall arrive at 1030 for coffee, and the program presentation will be at 1100, to be followed at 1200 by a copious buffet luncheon. We have Cecilia Welna to thank for proposing and making arrangements for this occasion.
Most of us remember the G Fox department store in Hartford in the years of its ascendancy as a renowned and forward looking institution with a range of goods and services comparable to an entire shopping mall of today. Established in 1847, it bore the name of its, founder, Gerson Fox, a Jewish immigrant, and grew into the sixth largest privately owned store in the country. Gerson Fox's granddaughter, Beatrice Fox Auerbach (born July 17, 1887) became involved in store management after a devastating fire in 1917 and, on her husband's death in 1927, became still more prominent; when her father Moses Fox died in 1938, she became president of the store.
Under her direction G.Fox developed in significant ways. The Company introduced a five day week for employees. retirement plans, health benefits. and lunch facilities provided on a nonprofit basis. African American and female employees enjoyed opportunities for advancement. Customers were able to use toll-free telephone service for placing orders, and free deliveries were instituted. The Company grew tenfold.
From her sixtieth year Mrs. Auerbach traveled widely to many parts of the world, and her diaries and correspondence, along with the recollections of friends and associates. make up a rich documentary record, an invitation to scholarship on the part of her biographer, who has now come forward in the person of Dr. Virginia S. Hale, Emerita Professor of English and Department Head at the University of Hartford. Professor Hale's nearly completed book on the Life of Beatrice Fox Auerbach provides the material for her lecture.
In 1965, Beatrice Fox sold her shares in the Company to May Department Stores and turned to philanthropic activities, estab!L:;hing a Foundation to support educational and civic activities, and she became involved in the Service Bureau for Women's Organizations. Her distinguished career ended with her death on November 29, 1968.
