In Memoriam: Rody Cox
Rody Cox, M.D., a Professor Emeritus in the William T. and Gay F. Solomon Division of General Internal Medicine, died peacefully at his home surrounded by his family, on Sunday, Sept. 27. He was 99.
Dr. Cox was recruited to UT Southwestern in 1988 to serve as Dean of the Medical School.
“At that time, they were looking for a dean who was both interested and experienced in research and also in patient care,” he said in a video interview at the time of his retirement in 2019.
During his three-decade tenure as a Distinguished Teaching Professor, Dr. Cox made significant contributions to UT Southwestern. As a scientist, he was best known as the discoverer of the molecular and biochemical basis of maple syrup urine disease, a rare, inherited metabolic disorder in which the body cannot properly break down certain proteins. Throughout his career, he ran a productive biochemistry and human metabolism lab. When required by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to retire as Principal Investigator from his R01 grant studies, he did so as the oldest NIH continually funded scientist.
As an educator, Dr. Cox was considered a master clinician and diagnostician teaching on the Parkland general internal medicine ward teams, precepting the residents in their Parkland primary care clinic, and teaching clinical medicine in the Colleges program. He served as Head of the Medical School’s Estabrook College and was a respected career mentor for hundreds of students and residents, as well as a key advisor helping medical students acquire internship slots.
Among his many awards and honors, Dr. Cox was named a Master of the American College of Physicians (ACP), Laureate Awardee of the Texas ACP, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in England. He also received the Distinguished Clinical Science Educator Award from the UT Southwestern Academy of Teachers.
Rody Powell Cox was born June 24, 1926, to Raymond, a salesman, and Hazel (nee Powell) Cox, a stenographer, in New Brighton, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 17 and was trained as a combat medic. Upon leaving military service, he took advantage of the GI Bill and entered medical school.
He said he had wanted to be a doctor since he was a boy growing up during the Depression, influenced by a next-door neighbor who was a physician. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also obtained internal medicine residency training and served as Chief Resident. He remained there to complete graduate studies in microbiology and then embarked on a research fellowship in genetics at the University of Glasgow in Scotland under the tutelage of pioneering Italian geneticist Guido “Ponte”Pontecorvo. Prior to joining the faculty at UT Southwestern, Dr. Cox served on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University (NYU), and Case Western Reserve University. At NYU, he spent a dozen years as Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program and six as Chair of the Division of Human Genetics. He also was a career scientist with the Health Research Council of the City of New York. At Case Western, he spent a decade as Vice Chair of Medicine and Chief of the Medical Service at the Cleveland VA Medical Center, and eight years as Co-Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program. Dr. Cox was a member of the Metabolism Study Section and later Chair of the Genetics Study Section and the Mammalian Genetics Study Section of the NIH. He was also a member of the Panel on Clinical Sciences of the National Research Council.
Dr. Cox was considered a beloved figure among faculty, trainees, and staff. At the time of his retirement, his division chief described him as “enormously humble and affable, exhibiting all of the collegiality and warmth of being both a ‘gentleman and a scholar.’”
“I’ve always been interested in trying to make a difference in peoples’ lives,” he said upon retirement. “I’m a doctor who really cares for his patients, and I’d like to be known and remembered as somebody who did that.”
Dr. Cox and his first wife, Jane, had three children, Shelley, a pediatrician, Rody Jr., a geologist, and Sue Ellen, a physician. He married Levaun “Bonnie” Sears in 1997. In addition to his children and grandchildren, she survives him.
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Memorial contributions may be directed to UT Southwestern Medical Center, P.O. Box 910888, Dallas, TX 75391-0888 or online at engage.utsouthwestern.edu.