Page 6 - 2019 April
P. 6
COVER STORY
Cleon Cox
Relationships
Phyllis Harmon, DTM
Cleon Cox is well known in District 7 for his
penchant for networking and guiding those in
transition towards their next opportunities. If you
mention the name Cleon Cox and Toastmasters in
the same sentence, complete strangers smile and nod
Cleon Cox was one of the first their heads in recognition. Often heard is, “he’s the
contacts I made in Toastmasters. I’d guy with the ponytail, right?”
wanted to visit an early morning Born in 1943 in San Jose, California, Cleon was the
club close to the I-5 corridor. Cleon eldest of five boys. He spent his formative years in the
extended an invitation to visit Santa Clara Valley before the semiconductor industry
Wallmasters. I attended and joined turned the agricultural area devoted to fruit orchards,
soon thereafter. Through the years, flowering trees, and plants into Silicon Valley.
Cleon has been a mentor and friend. I asked him if he was an outgoing kid (looking
I’ve learned much from him about for a link between the past and the present).
being a Toastmaster and leader. In The answer was not at all. He was extremely
a recent interview, Cleon discussed shy and thought of himself as an ugly duckling.
his growth in Toastmasters and left Illustrating his early school years, Cox shared, “I
me with words of inspiration and a didn’t feel I’d get out of the seventh grade because the
reason to continue my own journey. teacher said we would all be reading books and doing
book reports. One would be an oral report, given in
front of the class. If we didn’t do it, we would fail. I
was terrified. I knew I would fail the class. Somehow
at the end of the year, I was never called upon, and I
passed seventh grade. Maybe I looked that frightened.”
Feedbackers 2013 - Honoring Cleon Cox as the last remaining charter member
6 ONE COMMUNITY VOICES! | APRIL 2019 7
