Corey J. Wilcox, 45, died at his home in Richfield, WI on August 16, 2022, after a four-month long battle against a rare and aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Born on October 26, 1976 he is survived by his wife, Rachel Monaco, his parents Keith and Wendy (Oleson) Wilcox, siblings Jeremy, Casey and Jennifer Wilcox and her husband, Thomas Austin, Sr., nephews Dylan and Devan Tessmer, dogs Ada and her pup Connor, Rachel's parents Joseph and Patricia Monaco, close friends James and Marcia Hock, and grandmothers Clarine Wilcox Hollowell and Pauline Majchrzak. Preceded in death by his grandparents Roy and Geraldine Oleson, his grandfather Kenneth Wilcox, and dogs Wyatt and Grady.
Corey met his true companion, Rachel, while dancing the polka in gym class in 7th grade. They married on September 25, 2004, at Nine Mile Forest in Rib Mountain. In that same year, they started their family, buying their first Vizsla hunting dog, Wyatt, from a four-line newspaper ad for pups that Corey spotted on the breakroom coffee table at his workplace. Wyatt was followed two years later by brother, Grady. Later, Corey and Rachel went on to start a breeding program, Wyldfire Vizslas, which had its first litter of pups in July 2021, bringing joy and companionship to ten more families. In the last year of his life, Corey served as Vice President of the Central Wisconsin Vizsla Club.
Corey attended grade school in Wausau, Wisconsin, as well as Soldotna, Alaska, where the family lived during part of Corey’s childhood. The Alaska years made a permanent imprint on Corey. Everywhere else felt too crowded, too flat, and too hot in comparison to the wild landscape he loved. On returning to Wisconsin, Corey went on to attend Wausau West High School where he excelled in sports, academics, and leadership. He was team captain for wrestling and, and ranked among the top state athletes his senior year. He graduated as valedictorian, with the state’s highest ACT score.
Corey attended Ripon College on a football scholarship, transferring after his first year to UW - LaCrosse after a severe shoulder injury. It turned out to be one of the best decisions in Corey’s life; at LaCrosse, he forged lifelong friendships while obtaining his degree in Pre-med/Pre Vet studies, biology and chemistry. After graduation, Corey worked in his hometown of Wausau as the rabies coordinator in the Marathon County health department, and at the US Department of Agriculture where he had memorable experiences in harvesting beaver castor and trapping and relocating nuisance bears. Despite the obvious appeal of this work, financial and romantic considerations led to Corey’s relocating to Milwaukee to be with Rachel, where he took a position as a chemist at CH2M Hill, an environmental engineering firm.
From chemist to consultant to senior level team management over the course of 20 years, Corey worked on environmental permitting for oil and natural gas infrastructure and mentored many people along the way. Among clients and coworkers alike, he was known for infinite patience in a crisis, being an encyclopedia of obscure plant identification, a sense of humor, his crazy stories of his frontier upbringing, and for putting relationships first. Corey’s illness cut short his efforts toward building innovative teams for the future of the industry at Arcadis, Inc. a global engineering firm focused on sustainability.
Corey remained dedicated to sport, learning and leadership all his life; he became a teacher for others in almost everything he taught himself, from breadmaking and cooking (Rachel married him in barter for a lifetime supply of Sourdough pancakes) to maple syrup, habitat management, hunting, fishing, foraging mushrooms, growing huge pumpkins, beekeeping, woodworking,
grafting heirloom fruit trees, and as a mentor to dozens of people in his work. In sport, Corey power-lifted all his life, and ran many trail races, finishing his first 50K in November of 2021. At the same time, ever the teacher and mentor, Corey finally followed Rachel’s insistence “you should coach” and he became head coach of the Germantown Hornets Youth Wrestling Program where Corey’s “kids” and their families became a true love of his life.
While his chance to live out his vision for the Hornets, for wild adventures, and for populating the world with heirloom fruit and amazing red dogs has been cut short, Corey was able to plant the seeds in others to continue his dreams.
A Barn Party gathering for friends and family in remembrance of Corey will be held at Tansy Hill, Wausau, September 25 from 2 to 7 pm, and a memorial gathering and tree planting at Pike Lake State Park on October 15, from 3 to 6 pm. For details, contact MonacoRachelK@gmail.com. Memorial donations may be directed to the Central Wisconsin Vizsla Club, attention Teresa Rizzo, 2315 Back Road, Burlington, WI 53105
For more information about his extraordinary life, please visit his CaringBridge https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/coreywilcox Special thanks to the leadership of Arcadis, Inc., the Germantown Hornets family, and all our friends and loved ones who provided meals, yard help, and donations to support Corey’s family and scholarships Corey established at Wausau West High School and the Germantown Hornets.
Corey’s life was dedicated to raising up others and finding something interesting in almost everything. He loved knowing the history of things. He loved life, but invested in something greater than his own here and now. His memorial trees bear these words: “Every root an anchor; every seed, a promise.”
