Dick Young, Jim Phillips and the Secret Identity of the Fox

The death last week of a well-loved and highly regarded local environmentalist, Dick Young was reported here on Montgomery Patch. Although Dick was an Oswego resident, he had ties to Montgomery through his good friend and protégé, Jim Phillips, a.k.a. the Fox.

Jim Phillips was born in 1930 and grew up on the family asparagus farm on Baseline Road. His childhood on that farm, wandering along little Mill Creek and making friends with the creatures he saw, had a great influence on his life. He truly enjoyed nature, and throughout his life, he could be seen roaming the country roads, looking for plant specimens.

His appreciation of plants and animals drove the desire to do battle against the degradation of the environment, and those whose greed was responsible for it.

Likewise, Dick Young grew up a few miles away in the next small village. He had the same love for the environment, and high regard for Mother Nature as his friend. In fact, at one point in their lives, both men discovered the difficulty of taking on the large corporations that were responsible for so much pollution of the waterways.

As the story "Legendary Area Naturalist Dies at 86" in the March 15, 2011 issue of the Aurora Beacon-News, written by Steve Lord, explains:

“Young was often rumored to be The Fox, the crusader known for environmental
monkey-wrenching such as capping industrial pollution flowing into the Fox River, and dumping polluted water from the river at the office of a corporation. He would always deny it, but always smiled when asked if he knew who The Fox was.

In fact, The Fox was Jim Phillips, who worked for Young in the environmental
department at Kane County.”

On the other hand, Jim Phillips enjoyed hearing others tell him they knew the Fox was Dick Young. He welcomed anything that drew suspicion away from him.

In his book, Raising Kane: The Fox Chronicles, Phillips was so protective of his idol and his position with county government that he didn’t mention Dick Young’s name in his list of acknowledgments, although it certainly belonged there. But he did use a pseudonym, “Brick,” when writing about him. From reading the book, it is clear that Brick played a supporting role in many incidents.

In the late 1960s, the Fox developed some attention-getting tactics and soon the
newspapers picked them up. And the more attention he got, the more creative he became. Newspapers and magazines all over the world began to pick up the stories and soon he had a loyal following. Among the better-known periodicals, Newsweek and National Geographic did favorable articles about the unique ways the Fox had of calling attention to the worst offenders.

Mike Royko, then a columnist for the Chicago Daily News, interviewed him for a story on his campaign against a steel mill. After that, whenever he had something big in the works (like hanging a large banner on Chicago’s Picasso), Royko sent a photographer over to capture the event. These photos would usually show one of the Fox’s calling cards: a hand printed sign with the drawing of a fox’s head in the center of the O in FOX.

These were the days before Greenpeace and The Monkey Wrench Gang captured the attention of the country and sparked large public support for such movements. One prominent Illinois Senator referred to the Fox and his friends as “Conservation Kooks.”

During this time, Dick Young was whispering encouragement in the background, and often assisting him directly. Eventually Jim Phillips left the Environmental Protection Agency and started the Fox River Conservation Foundation. When new laws were enacted to control pollution, he was finally able to relax.

In 1990 he began writing the story of his life, detailing all of his deeds over the past twenty-nine years. He called himself Ray Fox, remaining anonymous until the end.

Over the years, whenever the “Who is the Fox?” guessing game was played, Dick
Young was often mentioned. It would be wrong to credit the Fox alone with his many accomplishments without acknowledging the very large part that Dick Young played. The two friends together met their goal. The river is much cleaner now and the country received a wake up call.

The book, Raising Kane: The Fox Chronicles, can be purchased at the Settler’s Cottage Museum. The proceeds from the book will go toward maintenance of the museum through the generosity of the Phillips family.