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Atlanta Journal Constitution 4/24/05
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I am the son in law of Sanford Fox. "Sandy" worked for seven presidents Roosevelt-Ford before retiring in 1975. Sandy started working for Presidents when he was chosen to be the purser for a secret mission that led him to be on the plane that took Roosevelt to the big three conference in Tehran. From that experience his career took him to be a member of the OSS and original day one employees of the CIG and CIA. With the CIA he headed up the graphics department and was heavily involved in the U-2 program. He gave daily briefings to President Eisenhower with charts and maps produced by his department. In 1959 he finally as he had always wished was picked to head the social office at the White House upon the retirement of Adrian Tolley his predecessor. His first president and first lady as head of the social office were the Kennedy's. He and Jackie developed a personal bond and many of the designs and ways the social office operates today were implemented in his early years. Sandy was heavily involved in the design work any materials that came from the White House including presidential cards, gifts from the president and first lady and particularly anything related to Kennedy's funeral. Sandy had to meet with Jackie 11/22/63 and from that meeting were developed the funeral materials including prayer cards, mourning notes etc. The Johnson years almost killed him for they were active "to say the least"-- entertainers. The Nixon years were stressful in the later ones due to Watergate. However during that time he designed the plaque that is on the moon. He retired in 1975 from the White House with a presidential citation from Gerald Ford for 32 years of government and presidential service . He however continued to work independently for the social office until the early 1990's and you can see in particular invitations and artwork his distinctive work. He died in late 1996 of Alzheimers and was given a 21 gun salute ordered by Bill Clinton. This was not a bad career for someone who came out of the depression in Scotts Run near Morgantown West Virginia, probably the poorest place in the country at that time. He was known to be the best calligrapher in the world creating his own fonts that were used at the White House.
I personally catalogued and inventoried his vast collection of presidential items. We sold over 5000 items at the New York Historical Society in 2003. Sandy has the largest file at the Kennedy library and his represented in most presidential libraries for the years he was there.
I stand to assist people who are collectors or sellers with my knowledge of presidential items.
Henry Edwards
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