Vivian Carol Fox

A memorial gathering will be held April 8, 2012 for Vivian C. Fox of Brookline, an expert on family history and women’s rights who taught for 30 years at Boston State College and Worcester State University, where she helped found the Program in Women’s Studies.

Ms. Fox died of lung cancer on March 21, 2012 at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was 79.

Ms. Fox was co-editor of “Loving, Parenting, and Dying: The Family Cycle in England and America,” published in 1980, and “Women’s Rights in the United States: A Documentary History,” published in 1994. Born in Brooklyn, NY, she graduated from Brooklyn College and received her PhD from Boston University.

She was described by colleagues as a rigorous and captivating teacher to several generations of college students.

Ms. Fox was the companion of Richard Fey, professor of economics at Tufts. She was married for 47 years to the late Sanford J. Fox, professor of law at Boston College, and leaves her two sons, Gregory Fox of Ann Arbor and Michael David-Fox of Washington, DC; a daughter, Diana Fox of Providence; a twin sister, Sonia Lazar of Los Angeles; a brother, Stephen Daitz of New York; and five grandchildren.

The memorial gathering will be at the Fox residence in Brookline from 2:00 to 6:00 pm.