Art: Although Fox had a national reputation, his professional colleagues at
University of Miami who were biologists/biochemists considered him to be a
bit of a charlatan.
References please.
Art: They seemed not to have much respect for his science,
and occasionally they would poke fun at his work in classes.
Envy?
Art: But mostly they regarded his work as irrelevant to origin of life.
Perhaps but that needs to be established and furthermore the issue is a little bit of a strawman since the argument was not if this was the path abiogenesis has taken.