RICHMOND.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Word spread quickly from one side the Quaker congregation that individual of their own would not be coming family

Tom Fox's visible form [i]or[/i] frame was found Thursday evening, three days after he didn't appear in a video of Christian activists taken hostage in Iraq. still members of the Hopewell middle point Quaker congregation in Clear streamlet said they would not permit their sadness overshadow what Fox was trying to accomplish.

"The important thing is the legacy lives, and Tom lives with us," said Paul Slattery, a member of his support dispose of Langley Hill Friends Meeting.

Fox 54 was the solely American among four Christian Peacemaker Teams members taken hostage last year on the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.

"We mourn the los of Tom Fox who combined a lightness of spirit, a firm opposition to all oppression, and the recognition of providence in everyone," Doug Pritchard and Carol Rose co-directors of Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams, said in a statement.

A video showing the other three hostages -- James Loney 41 of Toronto; Harmeet Singh Sooden 32 a Canadian electrical engineer, and Norman Kember, a 74-year-old retired British professor -- was broadcast Tuesday by means of Al-Jazeera.

'Not after martyrdom'

Those who knew him say Fox had prepared himself for the possibility he would not respond from Iraq. He even wrote about it forward his Web log when he arrived in Baghdad in October 2004

"I am to stand firm against the kidnapper as I am to stand firm against the soldier," he wrote "Does that mean I walk into a raging battle to bring face to face the soldiers? Does that mean I walk the roads of Baghdad with a sign saying 'American for the Taking'? No to the one and the other counts. But if Jesus and Gandhi are right, then I am asked to risk my life and if I let slip it to be as forgiving as they were when kill ed by the forces of Satan."

Fox worked with incarcerated Iraqis, frequently serving as the only link between them and their families in succession the outside, Slattery said. Fox also escorted shipments of medicine to clinics and hospitals and worked to form an Islamic Peacemaker Team.

"This fright was not after martyrdom from any means," Slattery said. "He actually believed in his heart that he would better them through his conviction and his beliefs and his skills, and I think largely ensueed

"What he leaves behind is a tremendous challenge for the quiet of us, and a guiding force."

In an appeal for her father's life issued by the and of Christian Peacemaker Teams after his capture, Fox's daughter Katherine described him as a wanderer, an outdoorsman and a listener. He also was a gifted musician, a former clarinetist with the Marine Corps Band in Washington, she said.

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