Edwin L Cox, Sr.

As a native of Mena, Arkansas, Mr. Cox completed his first two years of undergraduate study at SMU in the late 1930s. He went on to earn IA and MBA degrees from Harvard Business School, though his graduate studies were interrupted by his service in the U.S. Navy, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant. Following his graduate studies, Mr. Cox pursued a career in oil and gas production before founding his own company. Today, he is chairman and CEO of the Edwin L. Cox Company, engaged in investments and venture capital. A Trustee Emeritus at SMU, Mr. Cox has also served the University in numerous leadership roles, including vice chairman of SMU’s Board of Trustees from 1973 to 1976, chairman of SMU’s Board of Trustees from 1976 to 1987. He has served on the boards of Halliburton Company, the American Enterprise Institute, and the American Petroleum Institute, among others. He is currently an honorary trustee and member of the Trustees Council at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and he is a member of the Library of Congress Trust Fund and the Dallas Museum of Art. In 1990, he was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame. Just before leaving office in January 1993, George H W Bush pardoned Cox's son Edwin L. Cox Jr. The scion of one of Texas' richest families, Cox Jr. had pleaded guilty in 1988 to bank fraud by falsifying collateral on $78 million in loans. He quit as director of a Dallas bank, spent six months in prison and paid $250,000 in fines.