Sat, Sep 06 2008
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Published March 24, 2008 11:48 pm - For those who knew firefighter Marion Cox Jr., his loss is about as hard as they come. “He worked great with all the guys,” said Scott Skogland, a friend who had worked with Cox for 10 years as a volunteer firefighter with the Carl Junction Volunteer Fire Department. “A lot of guys are in the same boat I am. It’s rough going. I don’t want to talk about it.” Firefighter was 'aw, shucks' kind of guy By Debby Woodin
dwoodin@joplinglobe.com For those who knew firefighter Marion Cox Jr., his loss is about as hard as they come. “He worked great with all the guys,” said Scott Skogland, a friend who had worked with Cox for 10 years as a volunteer firefighter with the Carl Junction Volunteer Fire Department. “A lot of guys are in the same boat I am. It’s rough going. I don’t want to talk about it.” While Skogland volunteers at Carl Junction, where Cox also served as a volunteer, he’s a paid fireman at Redings Mill. Cox was a paid fireman with the Joplin Fire Department. Cox also was an emergency medical technician with Metro Emergency Transport System, a Joplin ambulance service. “It’s like losing a family member,” Joplin’s fire chief, Gary Trulson, said Monday of Cox’s death. “You have to deal with it on more of an internal basis, and that’s what we do in the fire service.” Cox, 51, of Carl Junction, was pronounced dead at 2:09 p.m. Saturday at Freeman Hospital West as the result of an accidental drowning, authorities said. The accident happened while he was kayaking on Center Creek. The Missouri State Water Patrol said the kayak hit debris and overturned, throwing Cox into the creek. “Marion was a good guy,” Skogland said. “We were friends. If you needed help, he was there. I felt privileged every time I got to work with him.” That was the Cox hallmark, if you ask those who knew him. “I don’t know of anybody who has more respect than Marion,” said Jared Richmond, an officer with the Carl Junction Police Department. He has worked there seven years, and he said Cox was one of the first public-safety employees and residents he met there. Asked what qualities Cox had that earned such respect, Richmond said: “It’s just the way he was. He never spoke bad to anybody. He was a very intelligent person. Any time you needed something, you could call Marion, and he’d be there to help you.” Most people in Carl Junction were mourning Monday, Richmond said. “Everybody knew Marion,” he said. “There’s very few people who haven’t been affected in some way.” Trulson said Cox had worked at the Joplin department since 1995. He had worked his way up to the rank of acting battalion chief and was next in line to become a battalion chief. “He was very eager to learn,” Trulson said. “He never complained. He was always quick to make a situation bearable that otherwise was difficult. He was the kind of guy that everybody liked and got along with.” Mark Elliott, a schoolmate of Cox’s, said he was always that way. 
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