McGill Libraries
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Joseph Willcox was born on August 11, 1829, in Ivy Mills, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
He was a paper manufacturer and naturalist. Willcox and his brothers (Willcox Paper Mill) manufactured the banknote and bond papers for the U. S. Treasury Department during the Civil War. He was Colonel of the 16th Regiment of the Pennsylvania militia. He graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University in 1887 and served as one of the commissioners in charge of the second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania for fifteen years. He was a long-time Trustee of the Wagner Free Institute of Science (1878-1918) and was associated with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Willcox travelled to Florida in the 1880s to collect paleontological, geological, zoological, and archeological specimens. He published the book "Ivy Mills, 1729-1866: Willcox and Allied Families" (1911).
In 1864, he married Elizabeth Philipson Morgan (1827–1909). He died on September 30, 1918, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Paul Willcocks is an award-winning writer, former newspaper publisher, and journalist with over 30 years of experience. After growing up in Toronto and attending university in Montreal, he headed west and landed at The Advocate, the daily newspaper in Red Deer, Alberta. As the police and court reporter, he got early exposure to the fascinating world of criminals, cops, and courts. He was the first journalist honoured with the Jack Webster Commentator of the Year Award and a two-time National Magazine Awards finalist. Willcocks is proudest of a Michener Award for Public Service Journalism won as part of a four-person team at the Victoria Times Colonist. He also served as a columnist and editorial writer at St. John Telegraph Journal in New Brunswick, the Peterborough Examiner in Ontario, and Victoria Times-Colonist in British Columbia. He is now a senior editor with The Tyee in British Columbia. In 2012, Willcocks and his partner Jody Paterson left Victoria for two years as Cuso International volunteers in Honduras, helping develop the capacity of Honduran development organizations. In 2014, he published the book "Dead Ends: B.C. Crime Stories." He lives in Victoria, where he and his partner have been full-time housesitters since 2016.