It was 1972, and Utah history buff Ron Fox was a fresh-faced 20-year-old in Miami Beach, attending his first Republican National Convention.
Fox — then the vice chairman of the Orange County, Calif., branch of Young Voters for the President, an organization supporting the re-election of Richard Nixon — gathered signatures from Republican leaders throughout the week on a red press kit.
Some of the autographs belonged to big names, like Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger. But others were less well known.
“They had paired us up one day during the convention with political leaders,” Fox said. “I was hoping to get a member of the Cabinet or somebody that I thought was real important, and they gave me this congressman from Michigan by the name of Jerry Ford to spend the day with. I was disappointed. And of course, he then later became president.”
So did two of the other signers — Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Throughout his career, Fox would attend nine more GOP national conventions and work under each of those presidents, traveling within the United States and around the world as a White House advance man. He also would become a prolific collector of political memorabilia.
But in 1977, Fox didn’t know how valuable those autographs would come to be — both economically and sentimentally.
What he did know was that he and his wife were expecting their first child, strapped for cash and in need of a crib and a bassinet. So he drove from Sacramento, where he was working for the California Legislature, to San Francisco and offered the press kit to a dealer in exchange for cash.
He received $500, spent the money and “tried to put it out of my mind and forget about it,” he said.
“It’s rare to see anything come back to you, you know?” he said. “I thought about it a lot of times, but never thought I’d get it back.”
That’s why Fox was shocked to see the press kit come up for bid in an online auction last month.
“I was very stunned — surprised — to see that thing,” he said. “And when I blew it up, of course, there was my name in the corner.”
Fox knew it was his. He submitted a bid and then emailed his three daughters, now adults, to tell them the story behind the red folder for the first time.
“He is such a generous person that I wasn’t really surprised by the story” said Jennifer Young, his oldest daughter. “But I’m used to seeing his generosity go toward other things — like other, bigger causes than just our immediate family — so it was surprising to see something that was just so personal. That it was for my crib, you know?”
After reading the email, she and her sisters became determined to acquire the press kit and give it back as a Christmas present to its original owner — whom they also happened to be bidding against.
“He has deeper pockets than we do so we were like, ‘Oh no; he’s going to be our biggest competitor,’” said Young, laughing. “We were really nervous that he would outbid us.”
Because the sisters knew they couldn’t afford to buy the press kit back on their own, they created a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the money.
“I was skeptical of that at first because I thought GoFundMe pages should be for true emergencies or disasters or people in desperate circumstances and wasn’t sure that anyone would care that much about this family story or memento,” Young said. “But I was really touched and surprised by the generosity of so many friends of ours that helped make this dream possible.”
Their campaign garnered over 30 donations and earned nearly $2,000 of the $2,400 the press kit eventually sold for at auction. The sisters won the bid and paid the rest of the money themselves, their father still oblivious and “very upset” that he’d lost.
Fox said he pressed the auction house for more information about the buyers and was relieved to find out what his daughters had done.
“It really touched my heart,” he said, also noting gratitude to his friends who donated.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ron Fox in his Salt Lake City office Tuesday, December 26, 2017. Fox collects historic photos and political memorabilia. In the early 1970s, he was at a Republican convention in California and got his press kit autographed by Republican leaders at the gathering. Richard Nixon signed it, as did three others who went on to be president: Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. Fox had to sell the press kit when his first child was born and used the money to buy a crib. It recently came up at an auction and his daughters bought it for him. The press kit is pictured at right on the wall behind Fox.
State Rep. Lee Perry, R-Perry, has known Fox for about 25 years and has worked with him on legislation in the past. He said his decision to donate to the GoFundMe campaign was a “no-brainer.”
“I thought, ‘You know, what a unique experience that he was able to do that and that he sold it to help his own family and now they were trying to buy it back for him,’” he said. “I respect Ron and love the man. I just think he’s a great asset to our state and the least I could do was donate a little bit to help them get that back for him, because it’s probably something that should be in his family, if anywhere.”
The press kit, which sits in a frame alongside photos of the presidents who signed it, arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. It now holds a place of honor on the wall behind the desk in Fox’s Salt Lake City office, where he’s been busily writing thank you letters to the people who donated the funds to return it.
“They helped bring back a meaningful piece of my history to me,” he said.