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Personal Profile — Bill Cox |
William Edward Cox (Bill Cox) and his brother Thomas Frank Cox share the names of their grandfathers, Frank William Tilley and Edward Thomas Cox, with the names switched around. Born in 1932, Bill was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army in 1954, after completing the ROTC program at Bucknell University. He served two years active duty , and then returned to the family insurance business in Washington, DC. Using his Korean War G.I. Bill benefits, Bill attended George Washington University Law School, receiving his LL.B. degree in 1961. He never practiced law, but found his education useful in his business of providing insurance for businessmen. |
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Bill eventually became owner of the insurance agency founded by his father in 1937, but sold the agency book of business in the mid-1990s when he decided to retire to North Carolina.
After meeting his wife, Gini, in 1954 Bill and Gini were married in the 48th Group chapel at Fort Eustis, VA in 1955. Bill and Gini have 5 children, 10 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.
Bill is a railfan and a model railroader, especially narrow gauge and traction (trolleys). He is a member of the East Penn Traction Club, the Friends of the East Broad Top, the East Carolina and Western North Carolina Railroad (Tweetsie) Historical Association, as well as a member of CPD13. He is also an associate member of the National Railway Historical Society. Bill has served as the Secretary of the Mid-Eastern Region and Division Superintendent for the Washington, DC area.
It was 1946 when Bill began building railroad models. That is when he assembled his first locomotive kit. Although the locomotive itself was swapped to someone else some 30 years ago, he still has and uses a part from that original kit.
Along with railroading, Bill has several other interests:
Bill loves soccer, and coached youth soccer for ten years. He was president of his county soccer association for two years and sponsored a men's semi-pro team. All three of Bill's sons played soccer, and two were varsity starters in high school. Bill is interested in military history, the Civil War being foremost, but including many other eras and conflicts, such as the American Revolution, the Boer War and the Zulu War of 1879.
John Wesley Taylor, Bill's great-grandfather, served in the 30th Virginia Infantry Regiment of the Confederate Army. He enlisted in 1864 at 16 and served until the week following the battle of Five Forks (April 1, 1865), in which his Brigade, commanded by General 'Monty' Corse, was smashed to pieces by General Phil Sheridan's Yankee forces. He was captured in the Confederate hospital in Farmville a few days before General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General U.S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1965.
Bill was president of the American revolution Roundtable of the District of Columbia at the end of the Bicentennial, in the 1980s Biblical studies and the liturgy also interest Bill, and he has a large collection of scriptures, hymnals and prayer books. He is a member of Saint Timothy's Episcopal Church in Raleigh, North carolina.
Before becoming an Episcopalian, Bill was a member of the Methodist Church. He served as a Lay Speaker, conducting worship services in rural churches where the minister appointed to the 'charge' had too many congregations to serve in one day. Bill is a member of the American Legion, and serves as Post Historian as well as newsletter editor and publisher. He has become very interested in veterans' affairs since joining the Legion, and is now actively involved in his Post's activities. He is a judge for the Patrick Henry Oratorical Contest, sponsored by the American Legion, in which high school students speak on a specified section of the Constitution of the United States. |
