By Kyle Peveto, Staff Writer
After being on staff at ACU for fifteen years, Reg Cox has left to pursue other types of ministry away from Abilene.
Cox was the director of Residence Life in the Campus Life office last year, one of several positions he has held at the university.
Cox says he was interested in doing something that was more focused on ministry. He worked in the first year program in student retention for a number of years and missed having contact with students; he said his job in residential life, dealing with housing issues, was “less enjoyable.”
Cox, his wife Amy and their son of ten and a half months Levi are now living in Littleton, Colo., where he is the new pulpit minister at Lakewood Church of Christ. With a young family beginning, he said that “full-time ministry offers a better rhythm in life.”
An avid outdoorsman, Cox said the position and the location had “too many plusses to turn it down.”
Cox graduated from ACU in 1984 with a degree in psychology.
He worked for the university before taking a job as a campus minister in Miami, Fla and returned to ACU in 1987. He worked at ACU continuously until now.
According to Wayne Barnard, adapting to life without Cox has been difficult.
“It’s been a tough, tough summer,” said Barnard, assistant provost of student development and dean of Campus Life.
Cox implemented many changes in the way the housing department ran, including eliminating a waiting list for housing.
“We were rewarding people who did housing the right way,” Cox said.
Currently, Cox’s position has not been filled, but candidates are being interviewed.
Four applicants have been interviewed, and a decision will be made this week. Two of the four interviewed are currently staff at ACU.
Cox said he will miss ACU, Abilene and Texas. He is very supportive of ACU and said he “believes in ACU’s mission of equipping men and women to make changes and impact the world.”
Other things he will miss about Abilene are good barbecue, Mexican food and the safety of the city.
Most of all, the Cox family will miss the people of Abilene.
Many students remember Cox from Kadesh Life Camp, where he was a speaker and wrote curriculum alongside Dr. Bob Strader, director of student life and leadership camps and Jan Meyer.
Cox will return for the first session of Kadesh next summer and will work with Cross Training, a camp in the mountains of New Mexico that was developed in the past year by ACU Leadership Camps.
Strader is sure whoever fills Cox’s shoes will need the same kind of passion he brought to the job.
“Everyone is unique, but in some ways Reg is more unique than others,” Strader said. “He is irreplaceable.”
Among those being considered to replace Cox are Dr. Mimi Barnard, assistant professor of English, and Jake Sledge, McKinzie Hall residence director, said Wayne Barnard, dean of Campus Life.
