Robert Lee Cox Sr., 76, of Cape Girardeau, a trustee of Word&Way from 2001 to 2005, died Sept. 8 at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.
Cox, who retired in 1991 after 27 years on staff at Southeast Missouri State University, was born Oct. 26, 1930, in Harrisburg, Ark., the son of Joseph William and Winifred Howard Cox. On June 3, 1956, he married Betty L. Scott in Mound City, Kan. She survives.
He was a graduate of Little Rock (Ark.) High School and received bachelor and master’s degrees in education from Kansas State College in Pittsburg. (now Pittsburg State University) and a doctorate from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Cox served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953 and was a hospital x-ray technician during the Korean conflict.
He taught at SMSU from 1964 to 1991, and established and operated the university’s printing services. He served as chair of the department of industrial technology his last six years there.
Previously, he had taught at Altamont (Kan.) High School and Chanute (Kan.) High School and Junior College.
Cox was a member of Illmo Baptist Church in Scott City, and served that congregation and Red Star Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau as minister of music. Ordained a deacon by First Baptist Church, Cape Girardeau, he was active in Charleston Baptist Association, directed the Baptist Student Union choir on the Southeast campus from 1970 to 1985.
He served on the Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board and its Word&Way Committee. A charter trustee of Word&Way’s trustee board, he served as chair in 2003 and 2004.
In 1994, Cox served as a visiting professor at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. From 1996 to 2000, he was an adjunct faculty member at Murray (Ky.) State University.
He received the 2004 Meritorious Achievement Award from Pittsburg State University.
The International Graphic Arts Education Association honored him with the Fred J. Hartman Award, the Lifetime Membership Award and the Frederick Kagy Life Achievement Award. He served that organization and Iota Lambda Sigma as national president..
Among other awards were the Distinguished Service Award from the Industrial Arts Association of Missouri and the Elmer Voigt Award from the Educational Council of Printing Industries of America.
In addition to his wife, Betty, survivors include two sons, Robert L Cox Jr. and his wife, Janie, of Jackson and Scott D. Cox of Columbia; another daughter-in-law, Debbie Cox of Scott City; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents; a son, Charles W. Cox; and a brother, Dick Cox.
Funeral services were held on Sept. 30 at First Baptist Church, Cape Girardeau, with Bob Herring and Jack Bishop officiating. Burial was in Cape County memorial Park with full military rites by the Missouri Honor Team.
The family has requested that memorial gifts be made to the Dr. Robert L. Cox Memorial Scholarship in Industrial Technology at Southeast Missouri State University or to Word&Way.