Obituary of Patricia Robin Fox

 Patricia Robin Fox, age 71, died on February 1, 2021 at her family home in Duxbury, MA where she grew up and lived for many years with her husband Jon Daley. For over two years Robin suffered from a cancer that challenged her body but rarely her spirit. Jon supported and nurtured her with immense love and creativity. Robin delighted in visits from New Jersey by her daughter Alex, husband Ben and their two young children Benny and Tenley. To them, Robin was known playfully as Bird.

Robin attended Derby Academy in Hingham, MA and House in the Pines in Norton. She then embarked on her adventurous life by moving to Nantucket where she opened her own fabric shop near the wharves. She later drove across the country to San Francisco to be near her much admired brother Peter. Robin earned money with custom sewing while launching a landscaping business. Working with plants was a passion she shared with Peter and their mother Marie, both trained as landscape architects. Like them, Robin was also a skilled sailor. When offered the job of skippering a sailboat to Hawaii, she happily signed on. Two weeks of stormy seas later, she found herself drinking a Mai Tai by a hotel pool, seated next to Michael Dunn who would become Alex’s father.
Robin returned to Duxbury to raise her daughter Alex. While teaching at Berrybrook School she took night classes at a local branch of Leslie College to earn a degree in early childhood education. She then embarked on a long career as director of the After School programs for the Duxbury School system.

Robin found great fulfillment in bringing learning, creativity and curiosity to her many young students. She was devoted to their well-being, offering support to them and their families beyond school hours. She was that special teacher whom former students still loved, and greeted warmly long afterwards.

In 1998 Robin met her husband Jon Daley, a master boat builder, rower and all-around craftsman. She knew it was love when she caught the scent of wood chips on his woolen vest. They soon married at a well-attended ceremony on Clark’s Island in the middle of Duxbury Bay.

Robin and Jon happily devoted themselves to a shared passion for historic houses. They bought and restored a 1703 cape in Pembroke MA and later applied their imagination and building skills to the house she had grown up in, a 1793 sea captain’s house. Robin took great pleasure in planting and tending her lush gardens. In summer, she and Jon sailed on Duxbury Bay and in winter headed to remote beach towns around the world. They also shared a love of music which took them to concerts far and wide. Together they supported local causes including The Duxbury Rural and Historic Society.
Robin is the daughter of Robert Stanton Fox and Marie Haffenreffer Fox. She is survived by her daughter Alexandra Gibson, her husband Ben and their two children Bencroft and Tenley of Medford, NJ, her stepdaughter Sarah Prario, her husband Justin and their children Dylan, Hannah, Ava and Owen of Plympton, MA. Robin is also

 survived by her two sisters Marie Young and her husband Bob of Pacific Palisades, CA and Josie Hanlon and her husband Fran of Duxbury. She is also survived by her sister- in-law Helena Fox Fraser of Charleston, SC, the wife of her late brother Peter Fox.
Robin is lovingly remembered by her nieces and nephews, Robin Fogg, her husband Nick Popoff and their children Chloe and Lucia of Yarmouth, Maine, David Fogg and his wife Allison of Portland, Maine and Rebecca Fox and Robert Fox of Charleston, SC.
Robin took comfort in the embrace of her mother’s large Haffenreffer family that includes 20 first cousins, many of whom live with their families in the Boston area. She and Jon proudly hosted several of the annual Christmas Eve family gatherings, numbering up to 65 relatives. Until 2020 this tradition has continued uninterrupted for a century.

A celebration of Robin’s life will be held in Duxbury at a later date when health considerations allow. Donations in her memory may be made to the Duxbury Education Foundation P.O. Box 1264 Duxbury, MA 02331, the Center for Cancer Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Development Office, 125 Nashua Street, Suite 540, Boston, MA 02114 or the American Indian College Fund 8333 Greenwood Blvd #120, Denver, CO 80221.