William T. Cox (1878 - 1961)

William Thomas Cox was the first State Forester and Commissioner of Conservation for the state of Minnesota. Cox worked as a forester for the United States Forest Service. After leaving office in 1929, Cox traveled to Brazil to organize the Brazilian Forest Service, which included exhaustive exploration of the Amazon Basin. Returning to the United States in 1931, Cox was appointed as the first Commissioner of Conservation for Minnesota.