Dr. Manfred Fox (Department of Chemistry 1950)

Provided by Erika Fox.

Born Berlin 1 April 1927, died London 6 May 2006.

Manfred Fox was born in Berlin into a middle class Jewish family. As a child he experienced the growing but inexorable rise of Nazism with all its attendant horrors, including the infamous 'Krystallnacht', when his parents' shop was destroyed. He managed to escape to England on the 'Kindertransport', where he stayed in a hostel in Margate, before being billeted, as were many children, on one of the generous British families willing to offer a home to Jewish refugees. His father was murdered in Auschwitz.

He excelled at many subjects in school, particularly in history and languages, but decided to specialise in science, and eventually studied at Queen Elizabeth College, and Imperial College, where he took his PhD in Chemistry.

After that he went on to work in cancer research at the Chester Beatty Institute, and also for a year at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He then decided that a career in scientific research was not what he really wanted, and moved into industry. He worked for some years for Fison's Pharmaceuticals, travelling to the Scandinavian countries, the USA, and other parts of the world in search of new and interesting chemicals and pharmaceuticals for the purpose of licensing in the UK. He was instrumental in introducing Gaviscon, still widely used in the treatment of Hiatus Hernia, and other digestive problems.

After this he decided to leave Fisons for what seemed a more adventurous life within the same field, and worked, for a while, with 'Dvorkovitz and Associates', a small American licensing organisation.

His ambition was always, however, to use his scientific know-how in a more entrepreneurial way, and eventually he set up his own company, 'Innovation Marketing', to licence new chemicals and pharmaceuticals worldwide.  This proved a very successful enterprise, and among the chemicals he licensed here and in Japan was Sevoflurane, widely and extensively used in anaesthetics. Manfred's interests were not, however, only within his own field.

He read widely, was much involved in politics, loved the theatre, and was a very gregarious and sociable person. He always loved young people, and, even during the earlier stages of the Alzheimer's disease, which ultimately ended his life, continued helping out in a school on a voluntary basis, teaching children to read.

He is survived by his wife Erika, his daughter Veronica, and his son Timothy.