Jack W. Cox

Jack Ward Cox passed away on May 21st at the age of 95 with his loving family by his side. Jack will be greatly missed by his wife Marjorie, three children Danny (Carolyn), Jerry (Amy) and daughter Kathie (Chuck), grandchildren; Tiffiny, Rex, Marsi and Sean and many great grandchildren.

He was born in Gravenhurst, Canada to Vernon and Ethel Cox in 1919. In 1924 the family moved to San Diego, Ca. to live near relatives and to enjoy the weather in sunny California. Jack grew up in the North Park area with his parents and younger brother, Kenneth who predeceased him in 1951. He attended Hoover High and graduated in 1937. He went to work for Consolidated Aircraft in 1937 directly after high school, and worked for them for the next 48 years. He rose from an hourly employee to the level of Manager of Production for the F-111 fighter jet spare parts line.

During his time as an employee, he saw the company merge with Vultee Aircraft in March of 1943, forming Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (Convair), and in 1953, General Dynamics, after they purchased a majority of the company from Convair.

When the United States became involved in World War II, Mr. Cox was made Foreman and was responsible for the assembly crew for such planes as the B-24 Liberator, Catalina PBY and Coronado PB2Y-3 Flying Boat. He would often make test flights with the crews to check out the radio communications in the aircraft before the aircraft was delivered for service.

Jack met the love of his life while they were both working at Convair and married Marjorie Louise Sessions in 1952. They lived for the next 62 years in La Mesa where they raised their three children.

Jack had many interests including radios and sound recording, photography, road trip vacations in campers and RV’s and especially entertaining family and friends with his amazing stories of the events from his long life. He was a long time Padre fan attending many games through the years from the minor league team days at Lane Field and Westgate Park as well as at Jack Murphy/Qualcomm Stadium. He celebrated his 85th birthday at the Padre game the year Petco Park opened in 2004. He often told stories about baseball legend Ted Williams who was a high school classmate at Hoover High.

One of his favorite accomplishments was taking part in the recording as the “sound man” of the Bing Crosby song "Where the Turf Meets the Surf" on July 5, 1941, with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra. The song was not released commercially, but was instead played at the Del Mar race track, which Bing owned, each day during the racing season from that time on.

A Celebration of his life will be held Saturday June 7th at 12:30PM at the Little Chapel of the Roses, Glen Abbey Memorial Park, 3838 Bonita Road, Bonita, CA.

Arrangements under the direction of Glen Abbey Mortuary, Bonita, CA.