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Fourth generation Rhode Islanders Jill Fox Tobak and James Werner Tobak have deep and enduring ties to the State.  Jill grew up in Providence and Jim in Newport.

Jill’s grandfather, C. Joseph Fox, founded The C. J. Fox Company, a print manufacturing company, in 1895 when he was 17 years old.  Jill’s father, Charles J. Fox, and uncle, Robert Fox, were partners in the business until 1996 when Charles died, at which point, Jill and her brother-in-law, Bob Starr, took over running the business until its sale in 2008.

Jim’s family had retail businesses in Newport where he grew up.  The oldest of these establishments was Potter & Company, a men’s haberdashery located on Thames Street and established in 1907 when his grandfather, Herman Werner, entered into a partnership with Louis Potter.  After Herman Werner’s death in 1941, his sons, Jack and Harold, ran the business.  Following Jack Werner’s death in 1968, Harold transformed the business from a staid men’s store into one of the most dynamic, cutting edge, retail clothing businesses in Newport.  Potter & Company was sold by the family in 2010, two years after Harold Werner’s death.

Jill and Jim’s great grandparents, grandparents, and parents were active civically in their communities and Jill’s family has strong ties to Temple Beth-El which, Jill (a former president) and now, Jim, have maintained.  Jim’s family had multi-generational ties to Newport's Jewish Congregations; Jesuit Israel (1881) and Ahavas Achim (1915).

Jill and Jim were in part inspired by Harold Werner’s lifelong philanthropy, including his having established two funds at the Rhode Island Foundation.

Jill and Jim can think of no better way of honoring their forbears and continuing the longstanding family tradition of supporting the Rhode Island community than to establish their fund at the Rhode Island Foundation.