Garfield V. Cox

Garfield Vestal Cox (May 4, 1893 – February 9, 1970) was a leading authority on business fluctuations and forecasting. He was one of the first people to study the performance of experts versus novices in forecasting stock prices. He was also the Dean of the University of Chicago School of Business. and grew up on their farm. He attended Earlham College for two years before transferring to Beloit College where he graduated in 1917. While at Beloit, he was a member of the Dew Drop Inn club. It was through the club that he met Warren C. Wade and his sister, Jeannette Wade, whom he eventually married. The club eventually became a chapter of Sigma Pi fraternity and Cox was initiated into the fraternity as an alumnus. In 1915, he attended a meeting in Indiana that led to the creation of the American Friends Service Committee.

Following his graduation, Cox was chosen to establish the Department of Public Speaking at Wabash College after his graduation.

When the United States entered World War I, Cox claimed an exemption from military service based on his Quaker beliefs. He did volunteer to go to the Western Front to serve as an aid worker for the American Friends Service Committee. He departed from New York City on September 1, 1918, and returned on August 25, 1919.

Career In 1920, Cox became an instructor of Finance at the University of Chicago (U.C.).

Cox was also one of the authors of the 1933 Chicago plan which called for banking reforms at the start of the Great Depression. In 1935, Cox co-founded and became chairman of the board of South East National Bank of Chicago. He served on the board for twenty-four years.

In 1947, he was given the honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from Beloit College. They had three children, daughters Phyllis and Marilyn, and a son named Lowell.

Cox was a founder of the 57th Street Meeting of Friends in Chicago and served as its clerk for more than twenty years.

Published works Following are some of Cox's publications.

Price Indexes in the United States – 1924 Forecasting Business Conditions – 1927, 13 editions with Charles O. Hardy An Appraisal of American Business Forecasts – 1929, 9 editions The Relation of Stock Prices to Earnings – 1929 Business Forecasting in the United States: 1918-1928 - 1929 Inflation Burdens – 1935 The Economic Meaning of the Townsend Plan – 1936, 4 editions with Carl H. Chatters and John H. Cover Is Socialism the Wave of the Future – 1946 Private Business and the Public Good – 1970, 2 editions