James F. Phillips

Dick Young, Kane County's first environmental director who helped create Kendall County's forest preserve system said this about him: "Phillips made a difference. The Fox helped change the way we think about our waterways. Scenic bike trails have been built over old railroad tracks along the Fox River". Jim Phillips received the Living Treasures of North America Heritage Award on Earth Day, April 20, 2002. Chicago Reader

When U.S. Steel adopted the slogan "We're Involved", Phillips erected a 70-foot-long banner that said, "We're Involved in Killing Lake Michigan". He retired in 1986 to start the Fox River Conservation Foundation and was on the board of "Friends of the Fox". Phillips authored an autobiography titled Raising Kane: The Fox Chronicles, explaining his rationale and activism. A memorial dedicated to Phillips and his efforts to clean up the Fox River is located in Violet Patch Park on the Fox River in Oswego, Illinois. The dedication was held in 2006.

Phillips discovered Armour Dial (Henkel Corporation) had been polluting Mill Creek which emptied into the Fox River, which violated a 1962 law that limited the amount of chemicals companies could dump into the surrounding water. Phillips created stickers issuing warnings that read "Armour Dial Kills our Water" or "Armour Dial Pollutes our air". He organized a group to travel to supermarkets around the United States and put these stickers on bars of Dial soap. Columnist Mike Royko called Phillips's attack "the most ambitious anti-pollution prank of his colorful career." The prank started an independent boycott of all Armour-Dial products, and after seven years, the state of Illinois sued Armour Dial's Montgomery plant for violating Illinois pollution standards.

Phillips was first motivated in the 1960s to plug a sewage outfall after seeing dead ducks in the Fox River. In the following years, his activism included erecting signs criticizing US Steel, plugging sewer outlets, placing caps on top of smoke stacks, leaving skunks on the doorsteps of the owners of polluting companies, and, in one case, transporting 50 pounds of sewage from Lake Michigan into the reception room of the company that had discharged it. His direct action techniques predated those of Greenpeace and other environmental organizations.

James F. Phillips (November 20, 1930 – October 3, 2001) was an American schoolteacher and environmental activist who became known in the Chicago area during the 1960s for his environmental direct action under the pseudonym The Fox.

James Phillips was born in Chicago in 1930 to Albert and Rose Phillips, one of five children, according to the 1940 U.S. Census