The trip from primitive land to a residential community took 100 years. It involved Indian trails, land speculators, northerners with health problems, and citrus farms that survived freezes, recessions, and a depression. Richard Fox used old aerial photographs, historical maps, land deeds, and genealogical records to recreate the activities and motivations of the pioneer families that settled around Lake Pineloch. The families included a Bumby, who went from England to Australia, before coming to Florida, a grandson of Thomas Jefferson, the last living selectman of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a reverend who founded a college in North Carolina, and more. All of them were attracted to the potential of the area around Lake Pineloch…
LISTEN as Joy and Richard Fox present “The Pioneers of Lake Pineloch” at the Orlando Remembered meeting October 1, 2019, in the Melrose Conference Room at the Orlando Public Library. (50:16)
Joy Fox is the writer, and presenter of four PBS educational series for Channel 24 instructional television. She is a graduate of the University of Miami and Rollins College. In addition to her work for Channel 24, she has worked as an educator for Orange County Public Schools, and taught astronomy and model rocketry at John Young Planetarium. Joy Fox is the first person to introduce using computers in the classroom in Orange County Public Schools. In her work reporting on the space programs for Channel 24, Joy experienced the thrill of living history! Learn more about her experience in an Oral History Interview with Joy Fox.
Richard Fox has been building new technology companies in Central Florida for 30 years. He recently has been quoted in Nature magazine, Entrepreneur magazine, and the New York Times. Richard earned his B.S. degree in physics from M.I.T., and holds 14 patents on the application of computers to industrial processes, and on medical devices. His interest in local history and preservation dates back to his mother’s activities in Pennsylvania, where several historical and ecological conservation sites are named in her honor. Richard has applied his skills in genealogy to reconstruct the history, and the personal stories, of the pioneers that built the area around his home in Southern Oaks.
History presentation by: Joy and Richard Fox
History recorded by: Jane Tracy / President of Orlando Remembered
Date: October 16, 2019
Place: Orlando Remembered meeting in Melrose Conference Room at the Orlando Public Library
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Richard and Joy Fox.
Richard and Joy Fox.
Pioneers of Lake Pineloch: How primitive land was conquered and became Southern Oaks by Richard and Joy Fox.
oy and Richard Fox present “The Pioneers of Lake Pineloch”
