2025 TDOY Nominee

Mark Fox is one of a select group of 49 dealer nominees from across the country who will be honored at the 108^th annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show in New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 25, 2025.

The TIME Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious and highly coveted honors. The award recognizes the nation’s most successful auto dealers who also demonstrate a long-standing commitment to community service. Fox was chosen to represent the Pennsylvania Automotive Association in the national competition — one of only 49 auto dealers nominated for the 56^th annual award from more than 20,000 nationwide.

“Our family has been serving the Greene County community for more than 100 years,” nominee Fox said. “The same core values of honesty, hard work and treating customers like family that steered my father and his father and uncles before him have continued to stand as the bedrock of my business.”

Fox, who earned a B.S. in accounting in 1980 and an M.B.A. in 1983 from Waynesburg College (now Waynesburg University) in Waynesburg, has also infused the century-old business with fresh perspectives and a new vision.

Originally founded by a relative in 1921 as the Mt. Morris Motor Company in nearby Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, the dealership was acquired by the Fox family in 1929, and a sister store was opened in Waynesburg in 1941. The original store was eventually closed and the Fox Motor Company, now Fox Ford, has remained in the family ever since.

“At age 13, I joined the lineage of Fox Ford businessmen — including my father, grandfather, and great uncles — as the dealership’s lawn mower,” Fox quipped. “I detailed and washed cars during high school and since my college was about a mile from the store, I picked up maintenance jobs around the building after classes.”

Upon graduation, Fox had a serious conversation with his father about joining the family enterprise. He started in sales in 1982 and eventually was named sales manager, general manager, and then dealer principal in 2013.

“Continuing a legacy rooted for more than a century in the same area has allowed for generational relationships and investments,” he said. “The business has created the opportunity for me to serve and give back to our family, our employees, our community and those who need us.”

With such deep roots in the retail automotive industry in his state, Fox has devoted his time and talent to the Pennsylvania Automotive Association, where he has served as a board member, board chair, and is currently chair of the Pennsylvania Automotive Association Foundation, the group’s philanthropic arm.

“I helped craft strategies to assist dealers who were coping with the prospect of lost dealerships following the bankruptcy declarations by General Motors and Chrysler in 2009,” he said. “I also worked toward improving the Motor Vehicle Act in Pennsylvania during my tenure.”

As a lifelong resident of Waynesburg, Fox is equally committed to his community, which he supports through deeds and action.

“To me, building my business and improving my hometown have always gone hand in hand,” he said.

Fox has served on the Waynesburg-Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Company for 49 years and has worked alongside family members and employees to keep his fellow citizens safe. Fox Ford has also paid for the installation and ongoing service of the HAAS Alert Safety Cloud system in the company’s firetrucks, which allows local drivers to receive emergency alerts in real time if a truck is working nearby.

“Volunteering for the fire company has been as much a Fox family tradition as the Ford brand itself,” he said. “I’ve responded to thousands of local fire and emergency calls at all hours of the night, in the middle of family gatherings, and from the dealership floor. I continue to serve actively and invest in the company for the protection of our community now and in the future.”

In addition, his dealership sponsors the annual First Baptist Church’s Touch A Truck event which gives children the opportunity to experience all kinds of trucks up close and meet first responders.

Fox has also worked with the First Baptist Church to develop the Way Community Center of Greene County, which is being built in an abandoned grocery store.

“I have led the fundraising committee to raise more than $3.4 million for the purchase and refurbishment of the facility,” he said. “The center will reach the underserved in our town with afterschool programs for youth, Meals on Wheels for seniors, and preschool opportunities for children.”

Fox currently sits on the boards of his alma mater Waynesburg University, a downtown revitalization group called Waynesburg Prosperous & Beautiful, and the Community Bank. He also supports Toys for Tots, Greene County United Way, 4-H, Waynesburg Lions Club’s summer concert series, paid internships for students studying automotive technology through the Greene County Career & Technology Center, animal rescue groups, school sports programs and many others.

Fox was nominated for the TIME Dealer of the Year award by John Devlin, president of the Pennsylvania Automotive Association. Fox and his wife, Shari, have three children.