Pat Fox Obituary

PAT FOX The world has lost one of its brightest and most exceptional lights; Pat Ann Fox left us on Christmas Eve, 2025. Pat was born in Summit, New Jersey, on March 17, 1935. She was the second of three daughters born to Helen and John Fox. At age 9, Pat, her sisters, and her mother moved to O'ahu to join patriarch John, who had been hired as the president of Punahou School. The change from New Jersey to Hawai'i sparked a passion for travel and new experiences in Pat that never waned over her 90 years. She had a unique way of taking challenges head on. Two oft-told instances from her childhood in Hawai'i are the time she got terribly sunburned and hit the beach again in order to "burn it off," and when she paddled far into the ocean on the day a tsunami was expected, convinced the smart approach was to ride it out (the tsunami never arrived, thankfully). Her wanderlust led her to unbelievable adventures. Rumor has it that when she graduated from UCLA, she contacted her parents and said, "Well, bye!", then hoofed it down to the docks and bought herself a $20 deck-chair passage on the first freighter headed to the tropics. She traveled the South Pacific and French Polynesia this way for a few years, hopping off on any little island that struck her fancy and staying until she felt the need to go exploring again. In fact, she over-stayed her time in Tahiti, dodging the local cops to extend her time, until she was caught one day bicycling along with a lovely large fish she had purchased from a local man for dinner and begrudgingly agreed to island-hop away. Pat was the picture-perfect example of the word peripatetic, gallivanting through the South Pacific, to Africa, then on to Europe. She was a deft hand at sketching and painting, which she used both to document her travels and to offset her meager cost of living. She created the logo for the Hotel Bali Hai in the late 1950s, created the logo and iconic label for Kimo's Polynesian Shop, worked silk-screening Alfred Shaheen designs, and did countless Hawaiian clothing fashion sketches for newspaper ads. While wandering through France, Pat met Dr. Gene Levitz, an Air Force doctor stationed at Chateauroux. She also met some lifelong friends, including Theresa and Karl Robinson, Laurel Silberman (now Smith), and Kay Wood, among others. But her connection with Gene led to marriage. The couple did a stint in Togo, West Africa, while volunteering with the Peace Corps, and lived briefly in Santa Barbara during Gene's residency, before settling in the wooded hills of Los Gatos, California. Pat had two children with Gene, but the homemaker's life wasn't for her, and she quickly found an outlet with the Sierra Club. She hiked, camped, and built trails happily throughout the 1970s-1980s, leaving her family with countless Tupperware containers full of stews to live on in her absence. She also left a trail of her artwork in her wake, painting many murals on the walls and fences of San Jose Family Camp, where the Levitzes would spend a week annually; memorializing her hiking trips and other adventures in sketches that she turned into greeting cards; quickly improving her friends' bathrooms and kitchens with paints and sponges; and creating large, colorful banners for meaningful occasions among friends and family. Her banners and sketches are treasured by those who received them, and there are more original works of art stashed in her files, all of which will be uncovered over the next few months and disseminated to her loved ones. Pat also decorated the world with her use of language. She was unafraid to use all the $5 vocabulary words she knew, and she strung them together in thrilling ways, always to great effect. Both her written and spoken language was so compelling - receiving a letter from Pat was like getting a chapter from a great adventure book, full of humorous and harrowing stories. Swimming with hippos! Escaping from a horde of baboons by tossing them a handful of wrapped cough drops! Smuggling a bushbaby into the country in her handbag! And conversations with her were far-ranging, always intriguing, always too short. One of Pat's finest traits was her curiosity, for what was happening in the world, the country, her town, or your life. It was all fascinating! As captivating as her stories were, she was every bit as interested in what other people had to say. If you were talking to her, she was fully engaged, looking you full in the face, asking pertinent questions, and laughing uproariously at your bon mots. Basking in the glow of her attention was like sunshine after a rainy day. Pat divorced her husband in the early 1980s and never regretted it. She filled her time with friends, family (her sisters were just short drives away), garage sales, running, travel, and entertaining. If you ever visited her and were presented with fewer than three different appetizers, you're lying. She was the queen of pupus, able to whip up something tasty from the barest of cupboards. Her salad dressings followed no recipe and were always delicious, her tuna dip a standard at any gathering. For about 35 years, Pat slept outside on her deck in Los Gatos, with just a corrugated plastic roof to keep her safe from weather. Fresh air was much preferred over four walls! When the pandemic arrived, she moved back to O'ahu, to be far from the dangers of covid and to be closer to her son, Sam, and his growing family. Pat became a grandmother at 85 and was thrilled by her grandchildren. Her final years were spent living in her Waikiki apartment overlooking the Honolulu Zoo and Kapiolani Park. Her lanai was eye-level with Diamond Head and wrapped around for a lovely view of the sunset over the ocean, and if she was lucky enough, a glimpse of the legendary green flash as the sun dipped below the horizon. Pat was generous, spirited, fearless, passionate, loyal, talented, loving. She could be sharp-tongued, but was quick to forgive and forget. She made every moment special, or at the very least interesting. A truly unforgettable woman. Pat is survived by her daughter, Hanna Levitz, of Los Gatos; her son, Sam Levitz, daughter-in-law Lara, grandsons Gabriel (12), Brixton (5), and Bodhi (2), and granddaughter Luana (4 months), all of Haleiwa; her sister, Mary Bell Fox Blackstone, of Santa Rosa; and many dear nieces, nephews, and friends.