Alexandra Wilcox
Alexandra Wilcox, beloved wife of retired KCBS Newsman, Jerry Wilcox, passed away November 9th at her home in Tucson, Arizona after a brave fight against lung cancer.
Born April 19, 1954, in San Diego, Alexandra grew up in a boating family and loved sailing.
She began her health care career as a nurse and evolved into a talented and respected executive with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of San Francisco and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
At Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley Alex became Director of Emergency Services and recalled that she and the CEO were on the roof of the hospital during the Oakland Hills Fire trying to decide if they needed to evacuate the building.
She held other executive positions within the Sutter Health system before landing her first CEO position at Menlo Park Surgical Hospital. In 2002, Alex and Jerry decided she should accept an offer to be CEO of a long- term acute care hospital in Tucson, Arizona, and the couple was off on a new adventure. In subsequent years, her talents took them to Albuquerque, NM and positions with Presbyterian Health Care and Ernest Health.
But, of all the jobs Alexandra held through the years her favorite was the last one: being the Administrator of the Tucson Surgery Center and simultaneously, the Center For Pain Management. She liked to call her employees “the Dream Team”. One of her supervisors says “she inspired me, by example, to be a better leader”.
Another says, “Alex was a great leader, mentor and friend, admired and respected by all who worked with her. She was smart, funny, generous and kind. A great lady whom I will love and miss always.”
And another co- worker added - “she was the only boss I’ve ever had who also became my friend.”
Alex adored her two sons, Matthew and Russell Hardy, her daughters- inlaw, Tess and Amanda, and her only grand- child, Wilder, who celebrated his first birthday recently at “Grampy and Nona’s” in Tucson. Watching little Wilder stuffing his mouth with birthday cake brought great joy to his grandmother, in the final weeks of her life.
Her two step- sons, Jason and Daniel Wilcox, of the San Francisco Bay Area, are also mourning her passing; there was much love shared between the Wilcox boys and their step- Mom.
She is also survived by sisters, Linda Nowell and husband Keith of El Sobrante, sister, Sherry Busk and husband, Tom, of Boonville, Missouri, brother, Kenneth Crabtree and wife, Sue, of Acton, California, cousins Keith and Hugh Lewis and many friends in Tucson and the SF Bay Area.
In retirement, says husband, Jerry, Alex enjoyed cooking, travel, watching NFL football on TV, and was a voracious reader of what she called “thrillerdillers”.
She used a silver bookmark engraved with these words by novelist George Sand:
“There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.”