A plan to remember Los Banos educator, veteran and leader Joe Cox

Editor’s Note: The following is an opinion column by Toni Huarte, President of the Los Banos Rotary Club

Joe Cox was a person that many Los Banos residents fondly remember, as a local leader and a man dedicated to service to his community, his state and his country.

Many of his friends, including fellow Los Banos Rotarians, are spearheading a campaign to commemorate him.

The goal of the campaign is to erect signs reading “Joe Cox Memorial Highway” on Highway 152 through Los Banos.

The eastbound sign would be located near the entrance to the Los Banos Campus of Merced College and the westbound sign near San Luis Street.

To make this happen, the friends of Joe Cox are asking individuals or businesses to make a suggested donation of $92, a dollar for each year of Joe’s life.

Smaller donations will also be gladly accepted. Donors who give $92 or more will be given special “Joe’s Donors of 92” recognition on Facebook.

Joe died in 2018. He made many friends when he was alive. He was a high school agriculture teacher, a high school and junior high principal and then a board member of the Los Banos Unified District.

As an ag teacher he served as agriculture department chair at Los Banos High and led a group of his students to receive first place at the state and then national levels of the dairy judging contests.

He served as the principal of Los Banos High School for 13 years and Los Banos Junior High for 6 years, as well as serving 12 years on the school board. When he was the Los Banos High principal, he helped Merced College start a branch campus in Los Banos in 1971.

In 1993 Joe was nominated by the Merced County Area Agency for the Aging to represent Los Banos in the California Senior Legislature and was appointed to the Senior Assembly.

As a young man Joe served his country in World War II on the U.S.S. Orion and U.S.S Batfish submarines and later served in the Navy in the Korean War. He devoted much of his life thereafter to supporting the Los Banos Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Los Banos American Legion.

After he retired, Joe devoted many years to honoring his fellow submarine crew members who died in World War II by planting trees, at both the San Joaquin National Cemetery in Santa Nella and at the permanent Los Banos college campus on Highway 152.

Each tree had next to it the name of one of the crew members who gave his life for his country.

He was active in St. Joseph’s Church and served for many years with the parish’s Knights of Columbus.

Joe was a long-time active member of the Los Banos Rotary Club, joining in 1966. In 1990 he served as the Rotary District Governor.

It’s no wonder, based on all Joe has done, his friends want to honor him. That’s why they asked the California State Department of Transportation for the opportunity to name part of Highway 152 in Los Banos after him.

The State of California has approved the project and has told the friends of Joe that the cost for materials and installation will be no more than $3,108.

Several people have already made donations, including the Los Banos Rotary Club, but now we need more friends of Joe to help raise the money to fund the memorial signs. And it makes sense to ask for a $92 donation, a good way to remember Joe by the number of years he lived. It would take just 34 donors at $92 each to reach the funding goal.

Los Banos’s Westside Community Foundation, a 501c(3) organization that was set up several years ago for projects like this one, has agreed to accept donations, which are tax deductible.

Joe’s friends have a goal is to collect $3,107 by the end of this year and then have the state erect these signs for the memorial highway early in 2021.

I encourage everyone who knew and appreciated Joe to consider making a donation — of $92 or whatever amount they can afford — and mail it to the Westside Community Foundation.