Professor Alonzo B. Cox was born on April 2, 1884, in Enfield, Illinois. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from The University of Texas at Austin in 1911 and 1914, respectively. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1920.

He served as acting president of Abilene Christian University in 1911-1912. He worked from 1920-1923 with Texas A&M University, where he was in charge of the Division of Farm and Ranch Economics at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. He worked with the United States Department of Agriculture, directing cotton marketing research. In 1924-1925 he served in Europe as an agricultural economist for the department.

Professor Cox joined the faculty of UT Austin in 1926, retiring in 1957. After its establishment in 1926, he served as the first director of the Bureau of Business Research from 1927 to 1945. In 1947 he created the Natural Fibers Information Center (NFIC), evolving out of Cotton Economic Research. Although it closed in 2007, the center became internationally acclaimed under his leadership for a worldwide program that standardized scientific cotton testing and named its library the A. B. Cox Memorial Library in 1987.

In 1927 Professor Cox organized and chaired the Texas Cotton Committee, a policy-making group. In 1939 he started working with the Texas Cotton Research Congress. In 1942 he assisted the Texas Statewide Cotton Committee in preparing the Charter for Cotton, which established economic principles governing the cotton industry.

Professor Cox served on the State Intercollegiate Schools of Business Administration Committee in 1939. He also served on the Texas Postwar Planning Commission and as a consultant on cotton price fixing for the U.S. government.

Professor Cox authored or coauthored An Economic Study of a Typical Ranching Area on the Edwards Plateau of Texas (1922), The Cottonseed Crushing Industry of Texas in its National Setting (1949), and Cotton: Demand-Supply-Merchandising (1952).

On December 25, 1968, Professor Cox died.