Longtime pastor served Adrian

8/5/2006

ADRIAN - The Rev. Lawrence Paten Cox, a former pastor of Raisin Valley Friends Church here, died Tuesday in Provincial House of Adrian. He was 93.

The family did not know the cause of death.

Mr. Cox was the pastor of the church for 30 years, from 1948 until retiring in 1978.

He also was the superintendent of the Michigan district of the Evangelical Friends Church from 1954 to 1978.

And he was at different times secretary of the district board for 17 years, and president of the denomination pension board for six years.

With his wife, Ruth, whom he married in 1934, Mr. Cox also owned and operated the former Cox's Dairy in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, for several years until 1943, when he was drafted in the Army. The business was later sold. She died in 2002.

A native of Westfield, Ind., Mr. Cox, who graduated from Mt. Gilead High School, served in the Army Medical Corps during World War II in the United States until his honorable discharge in 1945.

After the war, Mr. Cox, who came from a family of ministers, attended Cleveland Bible College, from which he graduated in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in theology. He also attended Winona Lake School of Theology in Warsaw, Ind., for two years.

"Everybody really liked him," his son, Howard P. Cox, said.

Surviving are his son, Howard P. Cox, and three grandsons. Services will be at 11 a.m. today in the Braun Everiss Wagley Funeral Home, Adrian.

The family suggests tributes to the Raisin Valley Friends Church.