Thomas James Cox, age 75, of Mableton, Cobb County, Georgia, went to sleep in the Lord on January 25, 2023, after a two-week long hospitalization.
Tom is survived by his wife, Michele Molnar Cox, also living in Cobb County; his two daughters, Jessica Lynn Cox who is currently residing in Brussels, Belgium; and Joanna Cox Gibson and her husband Carl Gibson, who reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and their two sons, Noah Jackson Gibson and Adam James Gibson.
Tom’s sisters Patricia Cox Schoener, and Margaret Cox Schoener are living in Houston, Texas, along with many nieces and nephews. His parents, Raymond and Phyllis Cox of Whiting, New Jersey, and Tom’s brother Raymond Joseph Cox of Maple Shade, New Jersey are deceased.
Tom grew up in Morton, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. He loved to go fishing and putter around the bay as a boy. He developed a love of sailing and the sea from his grandfather, Harry Schilling Boud, who served in the Merchant Marines in World War II. Tom was intrigued by tales of his sailing experiences, and was influenced to become a sailor himself.
He attended St. James Catholic high school in Chester, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1965.
He received a commission to attend the United States Merchant Marine Academy in King’s Point, New York, from 1966-1969. His varsity sport was sailing and he loved being on the King’s Point sailing team. His degree was in Marine Engineering, which means that Tom knew how to fix everything on a ship from the turbines to the toilets. He was mechanical throughout his life, and would always repair anything that was broken.
After graduation, he worked on a ship for a shipping company, and then worked with his father at Westinghouse.
He had a strong desire to search out biblical truth, and attended Ambassador College in Texas, and Pasadena, California, earning a degree in Theology, in 1977. He met his wife Michele while at this college.
After his graduation in 1977, he and Michele got married, and moved to Mayfield, Kentucky, where he went to work for Ingersoll-Rand Company, specializing in industrial air compressors. He worked for Ingersoll-Rand for 15 years, as an engineer, marketing specialist and branch manager. During their years in Mayfield, their two daughters were born.
Tom moved around with his job several times, living in Houston, Texas for two years, and Chattanooga, Tennessee for 3 years, until being transferred to the Atlanta area, where his family settled in Fayette County.
After a few years, the Atlanta branch of Ingersoll-Rand restructured and it left Tom without a job. During that time, Tom had been volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, and had become proficient at construction, so he was hired as a House Leader for the Atlanta Branch of Habitat for Humanity. He worked there from 1993 to 1999, leading the construction of many homes, including traveling to the Philippines to volunteer on a Jimmy Carter work project. During that time, Michele and the girls volunteered for Habitat also.
After working at Habitat for six years, Tom and a friend decided to build houses on their own and began their own construction company, where they built several houses in the downtown Atlanta area, as well as many remodeling jobs.
In 2001, he and his wife Michele purchased a turn-of-the-century house in need of repair in the historical area of Fayetteville, Georgia. They named it Southern Oaks, and Michele operated a special events business there. He considers his renovation of this house the achievement that he is most proud of.
In his spare time, Tom loved to refinish antiques. He was always repairing and refinishing furniture and was a perfectionist and an absolute master of the craft.
His life drastically changed when in 2005, he was critically injured in a car accident in which he sustained a spinal cord injury. This was a permanent injury, which left Tom a paralyzed quadriplegic for the rest of his life.
For the next 17 years, Tom fought courageously and without complaint to be able to overcome the physical challenges of being paralyzed. He tried to live as normal a life as possible. He endured daily pain, surgeries, and eventually being fed through a feeding tube.
In January, his body developed an infection and other medical issues that it was not able to overcome, and he died in the hospital ICU with his wife and daughters at his side.
Throughout Tom’s adult life, he had an intense interest in the word of God, and to do what he could to spread the gospel of the coming Kingdom of God on earth. He is awaiting that glorious day when the Lord Jesus will return and “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy….” (Isa. 35:5-6)
Tom’s funeral will be held on February 11, 2023, at Mowell Funeral Home, 180 N. Jeff Davis Drive, Fayetteville, GA 30214. The Visitation will be from 12 noon to 2 pm; the service from 2 to 3 pm, with an informal reception to follow at Southern Oaks, which is 3 doors north of the funeral home, 240 N. Jeff Davis Drive, Fayetteville, GA.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in the name of Tom Cox, to Fulton County Animal Services, which is a no-kill animal shelter, at the following link: https://fultonanimalservices.com/donate/
We welcome you to leave your condolences, thoughts, and memories of Tom on our Tribute Wall.
Mowell Funeral Home & Cremation, Fayetteville, www.mowells.com