James F. Phillips

James F. Phillips (November 20, 1930 – October 3, 2001) was an American environmental activist who was known in the Chicago area during the 1960s for his direct action activities under the pseudonym The Fox. One of those actions was against Armour Dial (Henkel Corporation). Phillips discovered they had been polluting Mill Creek that emptied into the Fox River. The company was violating a 1962 law that limited the amount of chemicals they could dump into the creek. Nothing was done about it so he organized a group who went around to supermarkets all over the United States and put stickers on bars of Dial soap. The stickers issued a warning that "Armour Dial Kills our Water" or "Armour Dial Pollutes our air". Mike Royko, a Pulitzer Prize winning Chicago newspaper columnist called Phillips's attack "the most ambitious anti pollution prank of his colorful career." The prank was so successful, it started an independent boycott of all Armour-Dial products. Phillips seven year battle with Armour Dial culminated in the state of Illinois suing Armour Dial's Montgomery plant for violating Illinois pollution standards.

Born in Aurora, Illinois, 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 leaving signs around town 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 discharged it. His direct-action techniques were later copied by Greenpeace and other environmental organizations. The Fox was an avid historical boater who educated and demonstrated native American and early trapper fishing and boating techniques. The Fox was radicalized to be a founder mentor of the Earth Liberation Front movement after witnessing toxic dumping into the Fox River over decades which polluted the river to near-death. The Fox became famous after dumping a bucket of said toxic waste upon the desk of a Stone Container Corporation executive in Chicago. He was rumored to have also plugged drainage pipes from toxic industrial plants from his canoe along the Fox River.

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