Wilkes University professor emeritus Harold E. Cox, center, visits Wilkes-Barre trolley car 790 in July 2019 at Baut Studios in Swoyersville, where the vintage streetcar is being restored. Cox is seen with Anthracite Trolleys Inc. members Conrad Baut, left, and Jim Wert.
                                 Roger DuPuis | Times Leader

Wilkes University professor emeritus Harold E. Cox, center, visits Wilkes-Barre trolley car 790 in July 2019 at Baut Studios in Swoyersville, where the vintage streetcar is being restored. Cox is seen with Anthracite Trolleys Inc. members Conrad Baut, left, and Jim Wert.

Roger DuPuis | Times Leader

A true Renaissance man, passions ranged from politics and creative writing to trolleys and LGBTQ rights

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<p>Harold E. Cox, right, was honored by Wilkes University in 2015 with the dedication of a building in his name. Shaking Cox’s hand is then-Wilkes President Patrick Leahy.</p>
                                 <p>Times Leader file photo</p>

Harold E. Cox, right, was honored by Wilkes University in 2015 with the dedication of a building in his name. Shaking Cox’s hand is then-Wilkes President Patrick Leahy.

Times Leader file photo

<p>Harold E. Cox is seen at the 2015 dedication of Dr. Harold Cox Hall on the Wilkes University campus.</p>
                                 <p>Times Leader file photo</p>

Harold E. Cox is seen at the 2015 dedication of Dr. Harold Cox Hall on the Wilkes University campus.

Times Leader file photo

WILKES-BARRE — If ever there were an image of how inextricably linked Harold E. Cox and history had always been, it arguably occurred during the Veterans Day ceremony on the Wilkes University Quad Nov. 11, 2016.

As speakers took turns extolling the virtues and importance of those who serve in the military, Cox stood in his vintage Command Sgt. Maj. uniform for every word.

At the age of 85, the then-emeritus history professor looked frail yet proud, hunched a bit by the curve of his back, lean as a hungry GI on the battle front, and accepting the attention his outfit drew by media after the last note of taps played out from a bugler. The elegiac melody was the only time he had decided to sit through the service, tearing up as the somber notes drifted through the clear blue day.

Coping, at that point, with Alzheimer’s, Cox took the questions in stride, smiling. Asked what it meant to see people gather to honor him and other veterans, he answered simply “I can’t describe it.”

Born in Lynchburg, Va. in 1931, Cox passed away Sept. 8, age 90, leaving a lasting legacy in the region, mostly — but not entirely — thanks to his long affiliation with Wilkes, where he worked for 52 years.

His military record goes back further. He served in active duty in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956, then opted to remain in the U.S. Army Reserve for 30 years. The fact that he kept the uniform in parade-presentation shape so long — and still fit it so well in 2016 — may be enough to show his commitment to service.

Wilkes U. career

The peak of his university career, at least in the public eye, came in June of 2015 when the school dedicated and named a building in his honor. During the ceremony, then-President Patrick Leahy recounted how it all came to be.

Cox had a reputation for advising university presidents for decades, whether they welcomed it or not, Leahy said, insisting he welcomed it. So when Cox popped in to chat one more time, it was no surprise — at least, not at first.

“Harold showed up in my office a few years ago with a check for $165,000 and said ‘I would like you to have this’,” Leahy recalled. “I said ‘Oh my God, Harold, I’m flattered!’ He said ‘It’s not for you’.”

Cox wanted the money to pay for re-pointing of bricks, replacing windows and doors and otherwise sprucing up a building on South River Street that had gotten a bit rustic over the decades. Cox had taken an interest in the venerable structure when the University started using it to house offices for the Creative Writing masters degree program.

How did a history professor get tied to creative writing? At the same building dedication, the program director praised Cox for being involved since its inception 10 years earlier, noting many students learned the vital importance of tracking down primary sources from Cox.

But his influence goes even further. Cox became the university’s unofficial archivist, the go-to guy when someone asked about the history of a particularly obscure bit of campus minutiae. His expertise in all things Wilkes earned him an honor bestowed before the christening of Harold Cox Hall. A year earlier the school had named the university archive room after him.

In 2005 the university speech team organized a forensic tournament named after Cox. In 2004 the Times Leader ran a feature on a project Cox, then 73, had been working on for eight years: the Wilkes University Election Statistics Project, a website intended to provide everything you wanted to know about Pennsylvania’s major political races from 1789 forward.

That project sprang from an incident in 1996, when Cox approached a consortium of universities that collect similar statistics and asked for some 19th century election records. They told him the data was there, but it would cost him more than a grand to access it. Furious, he set out to build his own version, available online for free.

Supporting gay rights

Cox did not shy from controversy when the issue mattered to him, particularly when history showed a clear lesson that seemed ignored. In 1994, a series of anti-gay incidents hit the University. Wilkes-Barre City Council considered, and voted down, a proposal to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Students organized a public rally calling for an end to the hate-messages appearing on campus and a more open attitude for the gay and lesbian community.

Cox was there, and readily commented on then-city council member Al Boris’s controversial response to a Kingston resident’s claim he saw two men engaging in sex in a city park. The Times Leader reported that Boris had said “You should shoot half of them anyway,” alluding to gays.

“Had Al Boris advocated killing half of the Jews, or half of the Democrats, would he still be in office?” Cox asked. “Would he still be in town?”

Longtime trolley historian

Even as recently as 2019, Cox showed his lifelong interests in always learning, and his lifelong interest in trolley cars — largely unknown here, but well known among rail historians and enthusiasts.

At the age of 88 he was invited to visit Wilkes-Barre’s last known trolley car at Baut Studios in Swoyersville, where it was being restored. A Times Leader story about the visit pointed out that the longtime history professor’s fascination with trolleys perhaps should not have been a surprise.

Among his writings, Cox penned “Wyoming Valley Trolleys” in 1988, documenting the streetcar system based in Wilkes-Barre that stretched track tentacles to Nanticoke, Pittston and into Lackawanna County. His rail writings also included several important reference works on the development of Philadelphia’s streetcar system.

Self-effacing humor

Cox could be wry, self-effacing and offbeat, qualities he put on display during the dedication of Dr. Harold Cox Hall. When it was his turn to speak, he was blunt and smiling as he admitted initial trepidation about stepping to the podium, especially after all the praise from Leahy. “What he didn’t tell you is that I have Alzheimer’s.”

When the University surprised him with a cake and small party on the back porch of the building where all the guests sang “happy birthday,” Cox conducted the music with mock maestro sternness, grinning after it stopped and telling the crowd “I also have a warped sense of humor.”

The stroll from the dedication at the front of the building to the party in the back took a long time for a simple reason: People kept stopping Cox to pile on praise:

“Now you’ll always be with us.”

“Will you still hug me now that you’re famous?”

“You’re practically royalty.”

Then he made it clear what part of the honors mattered most. Asked how he liked getting a building named after him, he gave a slight shrug and replied ‘It’s no big deal.” But asked about how he liked all the attention at the birthday party, he offered a wide smile.

“It’s nice.”

According to his obituary Cox is survived by his spouse, Robert Reite, and a son, Michael, of Exeter.

Funeral services will be private and at the convenience of the family. Interment will be in Spring Hill Cemetery, Lynchburg, Va.

Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish