Salem teacher wrote textbook

SALEM -- Ella Thea Smith Cox was a beloved Salem High School biology teacher whose teachings became known around the country and world when she published a biology textbook used throughout the state.
Cox was born in Guernsey County in 1897 and lived in Salem from 1900 to 1954. She graduated from Salem High School in 1916 and received her bachelor of science degree in science from the University of Chicago in 1920, according to information archived at the Salem Historical Society.
She returned to Salem to teach biology until 1954. Her first edition of the 696-page "Exploring Biology" was published by Harcourt & amp; Brace Co. in 1938. Drawings and most photographs were by her husband, Marion Cox, whom she married in 1933.
Six editions of the book were published and it was used throughout the United States and in five foreign countries.
Cox also worked as a laboratory technician at the Central Clinic Hospital on North Broadway and Second Street from 1927 to 1940.
She and her husband moved to Mesa, Ariz., in 1954. She died in 1972.