Champion C. Cox was born in Cape May, NJ and raised in Leesburg, NJ. He attended the Leesburg grammar schools and graduated from Millville High School in 1958. After graduating from the Spring Garden Institute, Philadelphia, PA, with an engineering degree in electrical and electronic technology, Champion opened Cox Controls, an engineering and fabrication shop, in Vineland, NJ, in 1974. In 1996, he and his wife, Cynthia, retired to Snug Harbor in Hertford, NC, where Champ has been a crew member on the Periauger, PCRA’s 18th century sailboat replica.

In 2005, IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, recognized Champion as a Life Member.

Champion has been an amateur radio operator since 1957. He now holds an Extra Class license with the call K2IUN and is the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) District Emergency Coordinator for Area 1 for the state of North Carolina.

In the late 19th century, the oyster schooner Almira Cox transported a group of South Jersey families to Philadelphia, PA to go Christmas shopping. Until the 1890's, train service did not extend to the Maurice River area, and travel on the dirt roads by horse during the winter months was dangerous, hence the travel by schooner. I had heard accounts of the voyage from my grandfather, Bern, who was 10 at the time of the voyage and my great uncle, Champion, then age 14. After their deaths and the death of my mother, I realized that it would be up to me to tell this story, if it were to be told. I wanted to preserve the story of this voyage for the town of Leesburg, NJ, where the Almira was built and where it now lies on the riverbank at Bacon’s farm.

Over 120 years after the voyage, I met with thirty-five of the descendants of the Leesburg families who were on that voyage. From research and old tales, I wrote the folk history Christmas on the Tide.