auburnCitadel on Nostr: A tribute to Dr. Kenneth Fox (1925 - 2020) of Auburn CA. ...
A tribute to Dr. Kenneth Fox (1925 - 2020) of Auburn CA. 
Ken graduated from USC in 1947 at the young age of 21 and was the youngest dentist in California for several years, and continued to practice well into his 80’s.
He and his wife as a young married couple built 4 rock houses, including their own.
In 1951 Ken enlisted in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War where he served as a Captain
In the late 1960s, completely self-taught, Fox began building his sculptures.
In 1969 he began his studies in sculpture at both Sacramento State and UCD and began to work with clay and later progressing to cement leaving his artistic legacy in and around the Auburn area.
Fox began working in his 40s to build these huge sculptures, inspired by Greek mythology. “I had to build scaffolding 40 feet high,” Fox told a local newspaper in 2008. “I had scale models and built from that. The steelwork took six months, and the concrete work about seven days – working 20-hour days.” He recounted that after the steel infrastructure had been installed, he poured a solid concrete center and then began sculpting, working quickly to stay ahead of the drying mortar. The largest sculpture is over 40 feet tall and 120 tons.
Claude Chana (1811-1882), who is credited with discovering the first gold rock here in the foothills of the Sierra on May 16, 1848, which then spurred the great gold rush in what is now known as California’s Gold Country. The sculpture of Chana panning for gold was created, like the others, out of a rebar and wire mesh infrastructure and then covered in concrete mortar. It weighs 45 tons.
But even prior to these two statues, Fox had created a sculpture depicting a soldier carrying the body of a dead comrade; installed in 1967 during the Vietnam War, it was titled Why, and was extremely controversial at the time, viewed as an antiwar protest, although Fox said that he made it to honor all military forces.
A true Auburn legend.
Ken graduated from USC in 1947 at the young age of 21 and was the youngest dentist in California for several years, and continued to practice well into his 80’s.
He and his wife as a young married couple built 4 rock houses, including their own.
In 1951 Ken enlisted in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War where he served as a Captain
In the late 1960s, completely self-taught, Fox began building his sculptures.
In 1969 he began his studies in sculpture at both Sacramento State and UCD and began to work with clay and later progressing to cement leaving his artistic legacy in and around the Auburn area.
Fox began working in his 40s to build these huge sculptures, inspired by Greek mythology. “I had to build scaffolding 40 feet high,” Fox told a local newspaper in 2008. “I had scale models and built from that. The steelwork took six months, and the concrete work about seven days – working 20-hour days.” He recounted that after the steel infrastructure had been installed, he poured a solid concrete center and then began sculpting, working quickly to stay ahead of the drying mortar. The largest sculpture is over 40 feet tall and 120 tons.
Claude Chana (1811-1882), who is credited with discovering the first gold rock here in the foothills of the Sierra on May 16, 1848, which then spurred the great gold rush in what is now known as California’s Gold Country. The sculpture of Chana panning for gold was created, like the others, out of a rebar and wire mesh infrastructure and then covered in concrete mortar. It weighs 45 tons.
But even prior to these two statues, Fox had created a sculpture depicting a soldier carrying the body of a dead comrade; installed in 1967 during the Vietnam War, it was titled Why, and was extremely controversial at the time, viewed as an antiwar protest, although Fox said that he made it to honor all military forces.
A true Auburn legend.