In the summer of 1943, as the vice-president of the
Royal Aeronautical Society, Cox chaired two open meetings to discuss the education and training of aeronautical engineers. The
Minister of Aircraft Production,
Sir Stafford Cripps soon commissioned
Sir Roy Fedden, a speaker at the meetings, to report on the state of aeronautical education. His 1944 report "A College of Aeronautics" was the blueprint for Cranfield. The
College of Aeronautics opened in October 1946, and was truly a unique establishment. The concept of hands-on learning with access to aircraft and an airfield was completely revolutionary. In 1953, Roxbee was appointed one of three new Deputy Chairmen on the Board of Governors, and in 1962, on the death of
Sir Frederick Handley Page, he became the Board's chairman. Years of negotiation followed, and university status and a
royal charter were granted in 1969 with the college now officially renamed
Cranfield Institute of Technology, and eventually - in 1993 -
Cranfield University. Cox was awarded a
knighthood in the
1953 New Year Honours. When Cox was honoured with a
life peerage on 22 June 1965, he took the title
Baron Kings Norton,
of Wotton Underwood in the County of Buckinghamshire and his chosen motto, "Precision and Tolerance", was highly appropriate. He specifically intended these words to have a double meaning and they summed him up perfectly. They were to be interpreted in both their narrow engineering context, and also their broader, social context. He was a man with great skills in science. He was also a man whose success lay in his tolerance. It wasn't only that he was a good with people; he was also a diplomat. He believed that there shouldn't be divisions between disciplines: the arts and sciences, technology and management, commerce and education. It was an ethos that he lived by, successfully having careers in aviation, education and industry. ==Personal life==