Fox, Else Carola Collett-Muller
Else Carola Collett-Muller Fox, age 91, passed away peacefully on Saturday, December 31, 2016 at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. She couldn’t have been more loved and is already greatly missed.
Born in Bergen, Norway on December 30, 1925 to Captain and Mrs. Jahn Collett-Muller, she graduated from U. Pihl School in Bergen and later attended the University of Oslo. One of her uncles was the distinguished Norwegian painter Johannes Hartwig Muller of Oslo, and she was also a cousin of Jacobine Camilla Collett, writer and first Norwegian feminist. In 1948 she took a sabbatical from the Norwegian Consulate in Oslo
to travel with her captain father on his cargo ship. She had many marvelous experiences on this trip to Egypt and the Middle East, including meeting Lord Mountbatten and dancing with PM Nehru at a diplomatic reception in India.
Arriving in the United States later that year, Else studied at the University of California at Berkeley and then came to New Orleans where she was secretary to the consul general at the Norwegian Consulate. Only two weeks after her arrival she met her beloved husband William, and they married in 1949. After being in Lubbock, TX and Seattle, WA, they moved with their young family to Gainesville where they have lived since 1954 except for the years abroad when William had a Fulbright to Helsinki, Finland in 1959 and to Kyoto, Japan in 1975.
She lived a wonderful life filled with wonderful memories with loving family and loving friends, and her many interests included travel, reading, gardening, bridge, tennis with the B Girls Tennis Team, and golf. She was a sustaining member of the Junior League of Gainesville, and a member of the Daylilly Circle of the Gainesville Garden Club, and the Gainesville Golf and Country Club.
Else will be forever loved and remembered for her warm compassion, kindness, joyous enthusiasm and optimism. She meant all the world to us and leaves a greatly saddened family. Those left to cherish her memory include her beloved husband of 67 years, William M. Fox, her daughter Jane Inge Fox-Jones and son-in-law Chris Jones of Denver, CO, her son William B. Fox of PA, her cousin Turid Bjorge of Bergen, Norway, and extended family in Norway.
The family wishes to thank the caregivers at Oak Hammock and Shand’s 4th Floor ICU for the warm kindness and care that she received while she was there.
Memorial Services will be held on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at 1:00 pm at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 100 NE 1st Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, with a reception following the service. In lieu of flowers donations in Else’s memory may be made to Haven Hospice, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, or to a charity of your choice.
Arrangements are under the care of Forest Meadows Funeral Home, Gainesville, FL.
