Obituary of Charles Robert Cox

Charles Robert Cox Jr., “Bob”, passed away at home surrounded by his loving family on February 2, 2021.Born January 4, 1922 to Charles Robert Cox and Mae Gertrude Cain Cox in Scott County Virginia, he was the oldest of twelve children and graduated from high school in Centerville, Indiana. He joined the United States Army in 1942 , served in the European Theater from 1943-1945, and finished his military career as a combat engineer with the 1152 Engineer Combat Company attached to George S. Patton’s 3rd Army.Following the war, Bob graduated from Texas Tech University in 1950 with a degree in Civil Engineering. He married Viola Jean Ralston of Gruver in 1949. He farmed for a time in Hansford County Texas and began his professional career as an engineer for the Texas Department of Highways and Transportation. Bob believed in the value of hard work. He cleared the land and built one of the first houses on Colonel’s Row at Possum Kingdom Lake. He taught many young men how to use a shovel and mix cement and that work came before water skiing. He was an avid gardener and left his mark on Texas by the many trees he planted, the blue bonnets he developed on the roads around Possum Kingdom Lake, and the cotton fields he helped change to vineyards on the High Plains as a founder of Pheasant Ridge Winery. Bob loved to snow ski and began taking his family to Aspen to ski before it was posh. He was an avid bridge player, however unorthodox his bidding. He was a staunch Republican, actively supporting many honorable candidates over the past 65 years. He was a life time member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a longtime member of the Altamesa Church of Christ.He will be remembered for his dedication to duty and his country, his joy in building and growing things, and his great pride in his children, his grandson, and especially his great grandsons. He loved his “babies”. He was a great supporter of The Children’s Home of Lubbock, Foster’s Children’s Home and Christ’s Haven and would be honored by memorial donations there.He is survived by his wife of seventy-one years, Jean Ralston Cox; brother, Ward Cox; sisters Helen Smith and Alma McClurg son, Charles Robert Cox III and wife, Jennifer; daughter, Shelley Kay Cox; grandson, Christian Robert Cox and wife Sara, and four great-grandsons, James, Ryan, Daniel, and Benjamin.