Allan J Cox

1937 - 2018

Management Consultant and Author Allan Cox passed away Tuesday, August 28th at his home in Chicago after a long struggle with cancer. He was 81 years old.

During the course of his more than 50 years in business, Allan Cox worked with CEOs and top management teams for myriad corporations including USG, Walgreens, Consolidated Communications, Columbus McKinnon, Esmark, Kraft, Pillsbury, Quidel, the Minnesota Vikings, Playboy Enterprises, Child Welfare League of America and The Christian Century magazine. Before creating his own firm, Allan was an associate at Spencer Stewart & Associates, one of the world’s premier executive search firms. For five years, he was Chairman of the Board of Chicago’s Center for Ethics and Corporate Policy.

The author of 12 books, Allan’s business books along with three books of poetry, span four decades. He wrote ‘Confessions of a Corporate Headhunter,’ the first book ever written about the executive search profession. Other books include ‘Inside Corporate America,’ ‘The Making of the Achiever,’ ‘Straight Talk for Monday Morning,’ ‘Your Inner CEO,’ and ‘Your Place at the Table.’

Cox and his wife shared their love of Chicago and San Diego, where they maintained a second home. There, later in life, Allan began writing poetry and became a poet blogger. He has published three books of poetry, photography and reflection (available on Amazon) including “Whoa! Are They Glad You’re in Their Lives?” “Change the Way You Face the Day” and “When The Sun Shines Through.” Allan believed that poetry is the Cliff Notes of the human heart.

In 2015, he produced a 17-part video series on YOUTUBE: The Allan Cox Interview with Randy Lewis.

At the invitation of the late Vaclav Havel, Allan was a delegate to FORUM 2000 in October 2006, held in Prague, Czech Republic. The conference theme was Dilemmas of Global Existence. Cox was a plenary panelist in the opening program. He was also a panelist in a later program on corporate global social responsibility, chaired by Ms. Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada.

Always a cheerleader for his native Oak Park, Cox attended Longfellow Elementary School and graduated from Oak Park River Forest High School. He attended Wheaton College, where he later taught sociology for three years, and graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Northern Illinois University. Following that, Cox completed postgraduate coursework at the Alfred Adler Institute of Chicago. Most recently, Allan co-authored “Corporate Style of Life: An Adlerian Conceptualization told in a Personal Account” with Dr. Eva Dreikurs Ferguson, which appeared in The Journal of Individual Psychology (Winter 2016.)

He grew up in a very religious household and thought he would become a pastor. He studied at McCormick Theological Seminar and served as Youth Director at Park Ridge Presbyterian Church. He soon realized that was not his calling. Later, Cox was asked to serve as a visiting committee member for the University of Chicago Divinity School which he did for nine years. He was also a member of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Organization and adjunct staff member of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina.

A longtime active member of Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, Cox served as a Trustee, an Elder, member of the Personnel Committee and on the Pastoral Nominating Committee that brought in Dr. John M. Buchanan in 1985. Allan also supervised the collaborative creation of the Fourth Church Mission Statement in 1992. He met his wife, Cher, there while they both were serving on the Communications Committee. They were married at Fourth in 1991.

In addition to his wife, Allan is survived by two daughters – Heather Brazier of Waconda and Laura Cox of Mt. Sterling, IL.

A memorial service will be held at Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut Street on Friday, September 21 at 1 pm.