Dana Cox

age: 40 | Owner | Cox Exterior Design & Development

At Cox Exterior Design, a design/landscape construction service, Dana Cox meets with customers to discuss their project hopes, creates a custom design, and carries out the construction process.  “My connection with nature and art is why I do what I do,” he acknowledges.  “Both have been a constant in my life.  They give me joy and strife, so I never get bored due to redundancy.  I just try to create harmony between the two and myself.”

Becoming a father and creating a loving family with his wife, Haley, is Dana’s greatest personal achievement.  “Our children – Charlie, Tripp, Brooks, and Wyatt – amaze us every day,” he says, proudly.  In his spare time, he enjoys being outdoors with family and friends near a body of water, traveling, attending concerts, fishing, biking, ATV riding, golfing, and cooking on the grill.  

Creating one-of-a-kind projects for his clients gives Dana much satisfaction.  He explains that he has had a few projects where the clients have given him 100% of their trust to create something unique and special.  “The projects were exciting and pushed me out of my comfort zone,” he admits.  “I’m pretty proud of how they turned out.”

Since he has always had an interest in the history of Downtown Texarkana, Dana tries to focus his efforts on the idea of its revitalization.  He joined a group of local professionals to help implement the “Courthouse Square” remodel by offering his design services.  Since it is near completion, he hopes to be involved with other projects in the future.  

When asked where he sees himself in 10 years, Dana jokes that he would love to say “retired and traveling the world with my family.”  However, he feels like that won’t be the case so he is thankful that he loves what he does and the people he does it with.  “It would be hard to walk away.  Hopefully, in 10 years, I can delegate my workload a little to spend more time with my family,” he concludes.

Best piece of advice:

“In business, it is important to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you.” —Bob Bunch, Dana’s late grandfather-in-law

Name something about you that very few people know:

“I like to collect and learn about antiques ... nothing specific, just things that are weird, rare, or interesting to me. I could watch ‘American Pickers’ all day.”