“Leonard M. Cox, while his legal Residence is in Louisville, has gained the distinction through his many years’ service in the United States Navy.

He was born in Kentucky March 21, 1870, and received the degree of Civil Engineer from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1892.  For seven years he was with the engineering department of the Louisville & Nashville Railway, and on Feb 23, 1899, was commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade, in the Corps of Civil Engineers, United States Navy.  He was promoted to Lieutenant April 15, 1907, to lieutenant commander October 9, 1909, and to commander August 26, 1916,  During his early service he had charge of design and construction of various maritime works, and was in charge of construction of the floating dry dock Dewy from 1903 to 1906.  As a result of his treatise upon dock construction the American Society of Civil Engineers conferred upon Commander Cox the Norman medal, awarded by that society for the best engineering treatise of the year.  During 1912-13 he was a member of the Alaskan Railroad Commission by presidential appointment.  This commission made the first report on which appropriations for Alaskan railroads were based.  During World war he was Public works officer in charge of all public works of the Twelfth Naval District south of San Francisco Bay, including the construction of the aeroplane and marine expeditionary base at San Diego, until November, 1918, following which he was assistant manager of the division of shipyards plants under the Emergency Fleet Corporation of the United States Shipping Board.  In June 1919, he was transferred to the Mare Island Navy Yard as Public Works officer of the Twelfth Naval District north of San Francisco Bay.

He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Naval Institute, the Army and Navy and Chevy Chase Clubs in Washington and the Army and Navy Club of New York.

October 16, 1895, he married Jane Torbitt Castleman, of Louisville.  The have one child, Katherine Castleman Cox, who graduated in 1921 from Vassar College.”

Source:  History of Kentucky, Judge Charles Kerr editor, Vol. 3, by William Elsey Connelley and E.M. Coulter Ph.D., The American Historical Society, Chicago and New York, 1922, page 179