Geophysicist Doak C. Cox, 86

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Doak C. Cox, a renowned geophysicist who created Hawai'i's first tsunami evacuation map, died April 21 in Honolulu. He was 86.

Cox was born on Jan. 16, 1917, in Wailuku, Maui, but he spent most of his childhood on Kaua'i. He graduated from Punahou School and received a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from the University of Hawai'i.

Cox attended Harvard University and was one thesis short of a doctorate when the United States entered World War II and Cox joined the U.S. Geological Survey. At the end of the war, he returned to Hawai'i as a geophysicist at the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station and he also was a hydrologist for the Pacific Science Board Arno Expedition.

Cox's career in academia began in 1960 when he was a visiting professor at Stanford University. Later that year he joined the University of Hawai'i as a professor in geology.

He was the first director of the Tsunami Research Program at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics; first director of the Water Resource Research Center; and the first director of the Environmental Center.

Cox also dedicated himself to collecting historical data on the effects of Hawai'i tsunamis and served as a tsunami adviser for the Hawai'i Civil Defense. He is the only two-time president of the Hawai'i Academy of Science, which honored him with its first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

In 1965, Harvard accepted his published work as a thesis and awarded him the long-delayed doctorate.

Cox is survived by his wife, Marjorie; children; Catharine Langmuir, Nancy Stockert, Marion, Charles and Helen; 13 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 4:30 p.m. June 9 at Honolulu Friends Meetinghouse, 2426 O'ahu Ave. Donations may be made to Honolulu Friends Meeting.