BREWER – More than a half-mile of tow trucks brought up the end of a lengthy funeral motorcade through downtown Brewer near 11 a.m. Tuesday, in honor of local businessman Glenn Alton Fox, who died Saturday after a battle with cancer. Fox resided in Eddington with his wife of 48 years, Audrey (Seymour) Fox.

Best known as a prominent local businessman, Fox opened Fox Auto Sales of Eddington with his son Dale, and later opened Fox Towing and Auto Transport.

“He would always get you the day you called,” said Joan DeSanctis, pastor of the North Brewer-Eddington United Methodist Church, remembering the man who helped so many in their times of difficulty. Fox was respected for taking care of people well, and, she added with a smile, “he could sell anyone anything.”

Photographs displayed at the service, at the Brookings-Smith Clark-Piper Chapel on South Street, showed a smiling man who obviously loved his family, trucks and the outdoors. Numerous fish, felled moose, large groups of people, and trucks of all sizes shared space with black-and-white family photographs of handsome newlyweds cutting their wedding cake, a youthful Fox seated on the hood of a car, and a young, radiant couple looking at the camera as they embraced.

Born in New Brunswick on Nov. 1, 1934, Fox was the son of Allison Fox, a butcher, and his wife, Florence. The family moved to a farm in Eddington when Fox was 10, where he and his sisters Allene (who predeceased him), Shirley and Wilda were raised, and where he would raise his own family of four children – Deborah Breindel, Diane Fox, Dale Fox and Darlene Cookson.

Fox was an active community member. His company sponsored a youth baseball team, Scouts regularly rode on his trucks in parades, and he was a member of the Ralph J. Pollard Lodge No. 317 of Orrington, the Anah Shrine and Anah Motor Corps.

People were very important to him, said his son, Dale. “He got along with everybody. That’s not to say he didn’t have some disagreements with some people. Even with me! But there were about 275 people here last night. And he would have loved it. He really wanted people around. He was a people person.” Inviting the crowd to visit the home that his father built in Eddington, Dale Fox said, “That was his monument, and he loved to show it off.”

At the end of the service, the procession to the Blackman Cemetery in Eddington was led by a bright red Fox Towing truck, followed by mourners and a long line of sparkling trucks representing nearly 25 towing companies. Arranged by Tom Powers of Powers Towing in Glenburn, the trucks gave the procession the flair of a parade, causing pedestrians and other motorists to stare as the line of vehicles passed. With drivers from as far away as Newport, Carmel and Phippsburg, Powers mentioned that “it was good of people to show up.” Powers spoke emotionally about arranging the tribute. “Well, I worked for him, and he helped me out; he helped everybody out. He was a really good person and he really loved the trucks. I just figured he’d like that.”

Gifts in memory of Glenn Fox may be sent to Camp CaPella, a summer camp on Phillips Lake for special-needs young people, at 700 Mount Hope Ave., Suite 320, Bangor 04401, or New Hope Hospice, P.O. Box 757, Holden 04429.