November 12, 2013
11/13/13 Don Fox, a 1975 CMA graduate, Culver parent, and former summer staff member, has been named as the new director of Culver Summer Schools and Camps. Following a distinguished career in government, he took the helm November 11th from retiring director Tony Mayfield ’65.
After graduating from Culver, Don attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earning a degree in Economics in 1979. He went on to law school at Wake Forest University, and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corp in 1982. His active duty assignments included tours as a trial and defense counsel and serving on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon. In 1987 he earned an LL.M. in International Law from The George Washington University. Don left active duty after six years to become a civilian attorney, but both Don and his wife Tracy remained with the United States Navy Reserve and retired at the rank of Commander.
As a civilian lawyer for the Department of Defense, Don worked in the Navy General Counsel’s Office before moving to the Air Force and promotion to the Senior Executive Service and appointment as Air Force Deputy General Counsel. In 2008, Don was appointed as the General Counsel and Principal Deputy Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics. As the senior career ethics official in the Executive Branch, Don was responsible for establishing and maintaining ethics rules and uniform standards of conduct for nearly 4 million civilian employees and members of the military and working with ethics officials and senior presidential appointees in the White House and more than 130 federal agencies.
Don, his wife Tracy, and children have a long association with Culver. Don served as counselor for Naval company III for two summers in 1979 and 1980. Both of Don and Tracy’s children, Wes and Jody, attended several years of Specialty Camp as well as working at Woodcraft and Upper Camp, and Don and Tracy were Specialty Camp staff members. Jody subsequently matriculated to CGA, graduating in 2010, and Don and Tracy served on the Culver Parents Association Board. Don was inducted in the Culver Cum Laude Society in 2010.
Don and Tracy have been part-time residents of Culver since 2008 and are looking forward to their pending move. According to Don, “I can think of nothing more rewarding than the opportunity to return and contribute to the institution that has done so much for my family and me and countless others.”