Mattie Rae Fox was born on a ranch near the remote small town of Joy, between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls in north central Texas. Those acquainted with her often asked what factors in her humble beginnings led to her becoming a distinguished scientist, a recipient of numerous awards and a Fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition. She grew up on a ranch that was 50 miles from the nearest town, and, other than her brother, she had no playmates or cousins nearby. Her isolation apparently contributed to her love of books; she spent many hours reading in the shaded porch of her childhood home. She also became familiar with farm animals and was particularly fascinated by chickens. She was one of the first scientists to employ Japanese quail in her investigations. She recognized the importance of their short life-span in studying intergenerational responses and their sensitivity to slight differences in diet composition reflected in their feathers and bones. Among graduate students and assistants who were under Dr. Fox's supervision in her laboratories at the Food and Drug Administration were R. M. Jacobs, Ph.D., and Barbara F. Harland, Ph.D. In their lighter moments, they humorously recall their experiences in catching flying quail that had escaped their laboratory cages as valuable training for enhancing their dexterity on the tennis court or the baseball field.

Mattie Ray Fox began her higher education in 1939 at age 16 at Texas Women's University in Denton, TX where she enrolled in Home Economics Education. She was particularly interested in chemistry and graduated four years later with a bachelor's degree (1943). She accepted a position with Humble Oil and Refining Company in Ingleside, TX where she was assigned to a research project on synthetic rubber development. She realized she wanted to further her education and, in 1945, accepted a Senior Research Fellowship at Iowa State University in Ames, IA. During this time (1945-1947) she developed an interest in the science of nutrition and earned a master of science degree.

She then accepted a position as Nutritional Analyst at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, DC. While at USDA, she enrolled as a Research Fellow at George Washington University with the intention of earning a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. She roomed at the Hotel for Women on 16th St. with another Texan, D. Jane Taylor, whom she had met while at the Humble Oil Company. She and her future husband met in an elevator in the American Chemical Society (ACS) building on 16th St. where both were counting ballots as volunteers for an ACS election. Mattie Rae, then a Ph.D. (1950), and Robert B. Fox were married at the Hotel for Women on June 5, 1954. Subsequently, Dr.Fox occasionally returned to Texas to visit relatives and to Iowa to receive a Professional Achievement Award from the College of Home Economics, Iowa State University.

Dr. Fox held various government positions in Washington until her death 41 years after her arrival. After completing her graduate studies at George Washington University, she continued her relationship with her academic department for the rest of her career. She sponsored research support for three M.S. (Geraldine V. Mitchell, '68; Faye S. Gibson, '68; Ann Lee Jones, '77) and one Ph.D. student (Ruth D. Hamilton, '85). She also supervised the research of one M.S. student in chemistry at the American University (Richard M. Jacobs '68), and two Ph.D. candidates, one at the University of Maryland (Barbara F. Harland, '71) and the other at the University of Wisconsin (Richard M. Jacobs, '75). Her name preceded by the initials M.R.S. led those not knowing her personally to refer to her as Mrs. Fox, not realizing that the initials on her publications and official documents stood for Mattie Rae Spivey.

Dr. Fox was employed as a Research Biochemist, National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolic and Digestive Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD from 1951-1961, and in 1961 she moved to the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NIH) for a year. In 1962, she began her 28-year career with the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, DC. At the FDA, her research focused on nutrition, metabolic function, requirements for essential minerals (Stone et al. 1976) and their toxicity (Fox et al. 1971, 1974 and 1981); interactions of essential nutrients (Harland et al. 1974 and 1975a) and toxic elements; interactions of nutrients and their alteration of metabolism and nutritional requirements; Japanese quail as a research model for nutritional investigations; and development of animal models to obtain nutritional data relevant to humans.

Between July 1948 and the end of the summer of 1987, Dr. Fox authored or co-authored 97 articles and abstracts. She conducted studies with Japanese quail, chickens and rats. She studied the metabolism of amino acids, primarily methionine, with M. M. Cullen, 1960; lipids and vitamin E with John G. (Jack) Bieri, 1956; vitamin A and B-complex vitamins with G. M. Briggs, 1954; folic acid with L. O. Ortiz, 1953; the essential minerals with O. L. Mickelsen, 1955; (Jacobs et al. 1974) and toxic minerals with K. R. Mahaffey, 1976 and M. E. Richardson in 1977. In 1959, she and G. M. Briggs formulated a salt mixture for chickens. Dr. Fox helped establish the magnesium requirement for Japanese quail (Harland et al. 1975b and 1976), and focused on bioavailability of various minerals. She gave initial encouragement to the study of phytate (Rabbani et al. 1987) and examined the potential for soybeans as a human food (Tao et al. 1982).

From 1967 to 1970, she collaborated with James A. Halsted, M.D., Associate Chief of Staff, Veterans Administration Hospital, Washington, DC, and John Reinhold, Ph.D., Director, Pahlavi Nutrition Project in Shiraz, Iran, in research on zinc deficiency in Iranian village children and adolescents. From 1970 to 1975, she worked with Mary E. Richardson, M.D., who performed research with Dr. Fox on the pathology of cadmium in Japanese quail. Frederic W. Hill, Ph.D., spent 3 months in her laboratory during 1975. They conducted research on the effect of carbohydrate-free diets on mineral metabolism. In 1976, Maria Rakowska, Ph.D. (Institute of Plant Breeding, Warsaw, Poland) joined her laboratory in collaborative studies of the effect of soybean trypsin inhibitor on zinc bioavailability. Jaraslav Lener, M.D., Ph.D., Deputy Director and Head of Trace Element Research, Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Prague, Czechoslovakia, was a visiting scientist in Dr. Fox's laboratory for research on the relation of zinc, copper and manganese to cadmium toxicity.

She was active in the American Institute of Nutrition and served as society treasurer (1977-1981) on the Finance Committee (1974-1980), the Executive Committee for the XII International Congress of Nutrition (1977-1981), and was instrumental in establishing and supporting FASEB Summer Research Conferences (1981-1985). She also served on committees establishing the AIN Young Scientist Award (1985), the AIN Travel Awards for International Congresses of Nutrition (1985) and was the originator of Nutrition Notes, which is still published quarterly.

Dr. Fox's invited lectures and Public Law (PL)-480 Contracts and Agreements took her to four foreign countries (Iran, 1970; Poland 1972-1976; Tunisia, 1974-1977; and Germany 1977) and eleven states. PL-480 involved U.S. funds in foreign countries that accumulated through the sale of food commodities. She and her husband traveled together whenever allowed by his position with the Naval Research Laboratory. He sketched and painted travel scenes, which they used on their highly treasured Christmas cards.

Dr. Fox served science as a consultant to various bodies and was a member of special groups, reviewing bodies and committees. She advised the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council, delegations to the United Nations for conferences on the human environment, task forces gathering data on trace elements for the National Center for Health Statistics, Special Study Sections of the U.S. Public Service, committees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the International Congress of Nutrition and the National Health and Nutrition Evaluation Surveys.

Between 1968 and 1985, Dr. Fox received several awards. In 1975, she received the FDA Award of Merit, which is the highest award given by that federal government agency. Dr. Fox was an active member of the following professional organizations: American Association for the Advancement of Science (Fellow), American Chemical Society, American Institute of Nutrition (Fellow), American Society of Clinical Nutrition, Poultry Sciences Association, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, New York Academy of Sciences, Institute of Food Technologists, Sigma Xi and Phi Upsilon Omicron.

Dr. Fox had personal characteristics that won her the admiration of her many friends and associates. She played the piano well, preferring classical music. She learned carpentry and had a woodworking shop equipped with fine tools. She was a gourmet cook, and her kitchen was well equipped for hosting enjoyable dinner parties with delicious and attractive foods. Like her research, her social activities were thoroughly and carefully planned. She was fair and even-tempered under pressure, but if bounds were overstepped, she would say vehemently, "that person should be stomped to death." That expression may have arisen from her knowledge of stampeding herds in Texas. Preceding her death, Dr. Fox was making plans to give a lecture in England. After being hospitalized for two months, she died from lymphoma and was buried beside her parents in Joy, Texas. Mattie Rae Spivey Fox will be long remembered by those who knew her. Succeeding generations will appreciate scholarship opportunities provided by the American Institute of Nutrition Foundation that she developed to help beginning scientists.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS