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.

Elliott named Cox as one of his personal heroes when, in 1999, he spoke at a dedication ceremony for the opening of a new high-school building in Carl Junction.

When the two played football at Carl Junction High School in the 1970s, Cox wasn’t on the first string, Elliott said. Some of the other guys would quit if they didn’t get to start a game, Elliott said, but not Cox. He never missed a practice, and he played as hard as he could. He commended his teammates when they made good plays.

“In 1974, he won the Bulldog award from his teammates for being the most dedicated and hardest working player,” Elliott said. “That was a long time ago, but one thing about it was Marion hadn’t changed.”

Cox also was known for his dedication to his family, Elliott said.

“He was one of those ‘Aw, shucks’ kind of guys who stayed below the radar and took care of his family,” he said.





Fireman’s services

Services for Marion Cox will be at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at Memorial Hall in Joplin. Members of the Joplin and Carl Junction fire departments and METS ambulance service will be seated as a group to serve as honorary pallbearers. Burial will be in Carl Junction Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to Parker Mortuary for a scholarship fund that is being established for fire-safety students.