Marjorie Louise Greiner Cox

Cox—Marjorie Louise Greiner Cox, 99, on May 19, 2019, peacefully, surrounded by friends and family, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Marjorie was born on April 17, 1920, in White Plains, N.Y. She developed a love for math in high school and earned a bachelor’s degree in math at Harvard University’s Radcliffe College. There she met her future husband and the love of her life, Hawaiian Doak C. Cox. They lived in Cuba; a California mining camp, where she was the only woman; White Plains, N.Y.; and Denver, Colo. She earned a master’s in math education from the University of Colorado Boulder.

After World War II, they moved to Honolulu, taking a long and bumpy seaplane trip across the Pacific, at the end of which she had to balance in high heels on the wings of the plane as it bounced in the waves and hand over her two babies to the strangers in a boat there to greet the plane. She and Doak went on to have three more children and provided a home for several others.

They joined Honolulu Meeting, founded in 1937 with Doak’s grandmother, Catherine Cox, a founding member. In 1957 they helped the meeting come to unity to buy the house at 2426 O’ahu Avenue that became the meetinghouse, and along with other young families took on the mortgage for the meetinghouse while they were supporting and raising their young children. Honolulu Friends are grateful for these families’ foresight and sacrifice to provide a permanent place of worship for those who have come after them.

After her youngest child was born, Marjorie began to teach math at Punahou School, where she also served as department chair. Active in the Uluniu Club and UNICEF, she also served as clerk of Honolulu Meeting and president of the local chapter of the American Association of University Women. She loved to travel, and in 1955, when Doak was on sabbatical, they spent six months in Del Mar, Calif. After his work was done, they drove across the United States and back with five children and a mountain of camping gear, in a Ford station wagon with no air conditioning and a roof sagging from the weight of gear on top. They took their two youngest children to Japan for six months in 1966, afterward going around the world to the west, back to Hawaii. They experienced flooding in Venice, almost lost a child when a car door flew open on the cliffs in Greece, and narrowly missed the Six-Day War in the Middle East.

After Doak died in 2003, Marjorie moved to Arcadia Retirement Village, where she made many dear friends. She had a great sense of humor, was a consummate punster who could slide a pun into any conversation, and wrote little ditties for special occasions. Her loving spirit and quick wit will be cherished. Marjorie is survived by five children, thirteen grandchildren, and seventeen great-grandchildren.