NICHOLE MONROE BELL The Charlotte Observer
ROCK HILL -- Joel Fox lived in an upscale Rock Hill neighborhood and left more than $100,000 cash in his bank accounts when he died three weeks ago of a heart attack.
But Thursday, he will have a pauper's burial.
The casket will be a budget model. The plot small. The place marker concise. With no living relatives to claim his body and no apparent will, the 43-year-old engineer will be buried alongside dozens of poor York County residents whose families have vanished or forgotten them.
Being forgotten, however, won't be Fox's fate.
During his 20 years in Rock Hill, the engineer and teacher forged a family among co-workers, friends and students at Catawba Nuclear Station and York Technical College.
Fox's co-workers found his body inside his home on April 25 when he didn't call or show up for his job as a part-time math and science tutor, his co-worker Libby Neely said. Friends were worried about him because he'd been sick.
"The saddest part is he lived alone and had no family to check on him," Neely said. "But we are his family. Legally, they couldn't turn his body
over to us, but everybody wants to do something and be there for him."
York County Coroner Doug McKown said he hired a private detective who spent days tracking down Fox's relatives, but learned his parents and brother are dead. Normally, the coroner finds next-of-kin within 48 hours.
McKown, who handles about five indigent deaths each year, has recently been ordering the bodies to be cremated to save the county money. But he said this is the first case he's handled involving someone who could have afforded a nicer resting place. McKown decided to do a burial in case someone comes to claim Fox's body.
In the meantime, Fox's money will be held by the state. The county will bill the estate for about $5,000, which McKown said was the minimum cost of casket and burial fees.
The coroner is not planning a formal service. But Neely and others say they will stand at the modest gravesite in Rose Hill Cemetery in York to say goodbye. They will remember Fox as a funny, intelligent man who loved to learn and share his knowledge with others.
Neely said Fox took a substantial pay cut when he left the nuclear station to become a teacher. But Fox, who had a bachelor's in physics and a master's in nuclear engineering, felt it was his calling.
"There have been a couple people who couldn't handle Joel because they thought he was too demanding. He would call it a torturing session, not a tutoring session," Neely said with a laugh, then a pause. "It's been real hard."
Wanda Mills met Fox this spring when she decided in her 50s to return to school to get a degree in early childhood education. Mills' biggest fear was math because she had never taken algebra or pre-algebra. She was quickly overwhelmed, but with Fox's help, she got a B this year.
"I don't think anybody will ever forget Joel. He made such an impact," Mills said. "He pushed us to the place where we got the job done. He was an unusual human being -- incredibly smart. I can never thank him enough."
A friend of 15 years, Henry Nicholson said Fox was also an avid firearms collector who enjoyed shooting targets with rifles and handguns. Fox helped Nicholson become a member of the Charlotte Rifle and Pistol Club.
"There wasn't a time in our relationship that he wasn't there for me," Nicholson said.
Friend Steve Rast described Fox as a genius who enjoyed reading science fiction novels and debating politics. Even though Fox already had two degrees, Rast said he enjoyed learning, so he took computer technology and accounting classes.
Last week, about 100 students, faculty and friends gathered in the college library for a memorial service. They have set up a scholarship fund in his name and plan to plant a tree.
Some, like Rast, think those are things that would have mattered more to Fox than the way he was buried.
"I think that would be very much Joel. He never seemed that concerned about material possessions," Rast said. "His needs were quite simple. I think that's the way he wanted it."
Lawyers say cases like Fox's are extremely rare. In the Carolinas, the state takes over a person's estate only if there is no will and no relatives can be found. If a person dies without a will but has relatives, the state decides how the money is divided among the relatives.