off a cliff on Tunitas Creek road, in the mountains Northwest of Stanford University. The San Mateo County coroner concluded that Cox's death was a suicide. Cox was normally very safety conscious and had exceptionally not worn a helmet on that day. Cox's death came five days after he learned he was going to be charged with child molestation. Cox allegedly had repeatedly molested the son of one of his graduate students. Cox had told the father of the molested child that he would kill himself if the allegations were reported to the police. Two years after Cox's death, his longtime partner Clyde Wahrhaftig came out as gay during his acceptance speech for the Geological Society of America's Career Achievement Award, thus revealing Cox's sexuality as well. (Cox had remained closeted for his entire life.) Without directly mentioning the allegations against Cox at the time of his death, Wahrhaftig's speech implied Cox's suicide was the result of anti-gay prejudice, concluding, "I hope that, by making this revelation here, I contribute in some small way to the creation of a society with a sufficiently intelligent, open, and compassionate attitude toward sexuality that suicides such as Allan Cox's will be a thing of the past." Honors Cox was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. In 1969 the American Geophysical Union awarded him the John Adam Fleming medal for research in geomagnetism;. In 1970 he was awarded the prestigious Vetlesen Prize, along with G. Brent Dalrymple, Richard Doell and S. Keith Runcorn, for contributions to geology and geophysics. In 1976 the Geological Society of America awarded him the Arthur L. Day Medal for the application of physics and chemistry to the solution of geologic problems. He was the president of the American Geophysical Union from 1978 to 1980. In 1984 the United States National Academy of Sciences awarded him the Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship. After his death, a number of memorials to him were created. The American Geophysical Union had the annual Allan Cox Lecture from 1998 to 2001; this lecture was replaced by the Edward Bullard lecture. The Geological Society of America (Geophysics Division) selects a student each year for the Allan V. Cox Student Research Award; and Stanford University awards the Allan Cox Medal for Faculty Excellence Fostering Undergraduate Research. Works Books Selected scientific