Clara B. Cox

Clara B. Cox grew up in Pulaski, Virginia, with her parents and three brothers. She attended Carson-Newman College and majored in English before transferring to Radford College for her senior year so she could be nearer her boyfriend, a Virginia Tech student who became her husband in 1965. After a stint as a newspaper reporter/photographer, where she was probably the first woman on the sidelines professionally photographing Virginia Tech football games (mid 1960s), and working as an employment counselor, she joined the staff of the Virginia Water Resources Research Center at Virginia Tech, where she authored three reports for the center. She earned a master of arts in English at the university in 1984. Moving into public relations work for Virginia Tech, she wrote and/or edited numerous news releases, brochures, newsletters, and magazines; wrote a history of women at the university; wrote speeches for administrators; and directed the publications unit in University Relations. Her first book, which she wrote and co-edited, was "Images & Reflections," published by the university for its 125th anniversary in 1997. The next year, she edited and co-wrote "A Special Place for 200 Years," a topical history book, for the Town of Blacksburg's bicentennial celebration. She edited two other books, including "The Breakthrough Battalion," before writing and editing "The Grove: Recipes and History of Virginia Tech's Presidential Residence." She and her husband, William E. Cox, retired from Virginia Tech in 2010, but she has a passion for Virginia Tech history and continues to work on history projects, mostly for the university, and is a member of the editorial board of "The Smithfield Review," a regional historical journal. She and her husband have one daughter, two granddaughters, and three grand-dogs.