Communications lawyer, former FCC Commissioner and media diversity advocate Kenneth A. Cox, 94, died Oct. 31 at his home in Bethesda, Md.
Cox was commissioner from 1963 to 1970 and later a senior VP at MCI in Washington.
He was a graduate of the University of Washington and the University of Michigan and taught at the latter's law school before practicing law in Seattle, according to the University of Michigan. He was special counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee's TV inquiry in the mid-1950's and was tapped by then FCC Chairman Newton Minow to be chair of the FCC's Broadcast Bureau in 1961.
Cox received the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council's Everett C. Parker Award in 2003 for "distinguished service to diversity and inclusion in the media and telecom industries."
MMTC President David Honig Friday called him "one of the greatest ever and truly the conscience of the agency." Honig said that more than anyone who served at the FCC, Cox was most responsible for its civil right jurisprudence, calling him "a person of the greatest dignity and integrity."
According to a notice in the Washington Post, Cox is survived by his wife, Nona; three sons, Gregory, Jeffrey, and Douglas; and four grandchildren.
Services will be Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. at Westmoreland Congregational Church, 1 Westmoreland Circle, in Bethesda.
