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Last Updated June 26, 2008
I was born in Seattle, Washington in 1959 to Richard and
Norma Cox. We moved quite a bit when I was young. Up until 6th
grade we lived in Omaha, Nebraska, Oxford Junction, Iowa, and
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Finally, by the time I started junior
high school we settled in Charles City, Iowa, a town of about
9,000 people. I graduated without distinction from Charles City
High School in 1977.
I attended the University of Iowa with the intention of
majoring in accounting but five years later I finally graduated
with a bachelor's degree in economics. I then enrolled in the
MBA program at the University of Northern Iowa. In addition to
the regular MBA program, I completed the undergraduate
accounting program. After two and a half years I graduated with
my Masters in Business Administration and I passed the CPA and
CMA exams.
I then went to work in Des Moines, Iowa at the CPA firm Ernst
and Whinney (now Ernst and Young). I only worked there for a
short time before I was offered the opportunity to return to
Northern Iowa as an instructor in the business school. In
addition, I worked at my Dad's CPA firm. By 1987 I enrolled in
the Ph.D. program in finance at the University of Florida in
Gainesville, Florida. While studying at Florida I taught finance
courses in the Business School.
In the fall of 1992 I accepted a job at Indiana University
Kokomo. I am still here and most of the time I really like my
job.
I have a younger brother and sister. My sister, Susan, lives
in Boulder, Colorado with her husband Roy and their three kids
Matt, Erika and Marisa. My brother, Rick and his
wife
Jessica live in Boston, Massachusetts. My super-wife
Connie works at Delphi Electronics and Safety. We have a
daughter Samantha who was born on May 20th! We also have the
best dog of all time (Willie) who is a 7 year
old German Shorthair Pointer.
I enjoy home improvement projects and working in the yard. I
like reading although lately I seem to be reading more
periodicals and newspapers at the expense of real books. I used
to be a big fan of science fiction and I still consider Dune
my favorite book. Now my interests seem to be non-fiction or
magazines relating to my other hobbies. I enjoy cooking. When I
have the time and money I enjoy dining out at innovative
(non-chain) restaurants.
I am a fairly serious road cyclist. In the winter I am
a reluctant runner but I regularly run the Mini–Marathon. I lift
weights in my garage. I golf and play tennis but I am not good. I am a sports fan, particularly the NFL and the four major golf
tournaments. I also like college football (they need a playoff
system) and basketball, baseball, hockey, and auto racing. I
have dabbled in fantasy football and I have a long, disturbing
history of playing APBA (a statistics based baseball game).
I am a computer nerd. In addition to work related uses,
I especially enjoy golf simulations, serious driving
simulations, flying simulations (Flight Simulator), and action
games (the updated Dooms, Quakes, Unreal, etc.).
I also enjoy building custom databases in Access to
record my music CD and DVD collections. My newest addiction is
Rock Band on the PS3!
The spend too much time with my music collection and with my
collection of films on DVD. I have a couple nice playback
systems. I love to tinker with the hardware and collect and
enjoy the software. My music interests are broad. I listen
to hard-to-classify artists (alternative country) like , Josh
Rouse, Wilco, Son Volt, Lucinda Williams,
Lyle Lovett, Cracker, John Hiatt,
Whiskeytown (Ryan Adams), and Todd Snyder. I
also enjoy a few traditional country artists such as George
Strait and Dwight Yoakam. I like "college rock"
artists like David Gray, Barenaked Ladies,
Bodeans, Counting Crows, Del Amitri, Dog’s
Eye View, Gin Blossoms, Goo Goo Dolls,
Matchbox 20, Mysteries of Life, REM,
Replacements (Paul Westerberg), Semisonic, Third
Eye Blind, Matthew Good Band, and Toad the Wet
Sprocket. Of course, I am old enough to have a full classic
rock collection and I have a good collection of jazz. My
weak area is classical music but I am learning.
My interest in films is similarly broad so I will just name a
few of my favorites. The LOTR trilogy, The Shawshank
Redemption, Beautiful Girls, Gattaca,
Apocalypse Now, Fargo, Usual Suspects,
Blade Runner, The Graduate, A River Runs Through It,
Dances With Wolves, Titanic, and of course,
Caddy Shack and Animal House.
Click on any image to
enlarge
Weekly Visits? |
Mom and Dad |
Connie and Steve |
Iowa fans just before Indiana upset Iowa |
Chicago |
Dressed Up |
Susan and Steve |
Ski Patrol |
Wildlife |
From left to right: Dirty Rotten Kitty,
Willie, Connie, Marvin Lewis |
Niwot Inn |
Fab Four? |
Ann Arbor |
Oceanaire |
Jax |
Medal Winners |
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Breckenridge |
Willie |
Chicago |
Moving Help
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Buco |
Rick |
Here are a few pictures from our crew that
attempted to summit Longs Peak in the summer of 2006. We started
the climb at 3:00 A.M. after a 1 hour drive. The adventure is 16
miles up and back with almost 5,000' of vertical climb to a
finish at 14,256'. We finished 12 hours later around 3:00 P.M.
There are many web sites devoted to this climb but the best
might be
http://www.mtnds.com/hikes/mrh/mrh20.html Ironically,
Mike Duroe (one the the featured climbers) grew up two blocks
from me in Charles City, Iowa. (Be sure to check out their great
pictures that show the amount of exposure after the Keyhole. My
"scary" shots never happened because I was too busy trying to
stay alive.
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3:00 A.M. - someone
wake up my brother |
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More than three hours
to go to the top |
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Through the Keyhole |
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Its a little steep |
Almost to the top -
don't look down |
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At the top - now who
will help us down?! |
The two days later looking at Longs from Estes Park
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A closer look at
where we were |
The next day from my
sister's backyard - Longs in the background
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Click on any image to enlarge
Yes, this is me in 10th grade.
(For your safety, this image is not
enlargeable)
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