By Katie Nelson
HIGHLINE TIMES

Trevor Cox of Forden, Wales, wanted to name his newborn son Rainarc, after a character in a science fiction movie. But his mother hated it, and instead suggested the name Burien, after the Washington state city where Cox spent several years during his childhood.

“I didn’t want to call him John or Peter or Sam. So it was Mom who put the idea into my head, and it was absolutely brilliant,” Cox said. “Probably the happiest time of my life was when I was here [in Burien].”

Now, 44 years after his family left the United States when his father was laid off from the Boeing Company in Renton, Cox and his wife, Marilyn returned to Burien for the first time this week to vacation with their friend, longtime Gregory Heights resident Dorothy Herley.

Cox first met Herley when she was a frequent customer at a British-themed store in downtown Burien called “British Imports,” which Cox’s mother owned up until 1969, when the family returned to the United Kingdom.

Originally from England, Cox moved to Burien with his mother and father in November 1965. His father took a job as a stress engineer for Boeing, and moved his family across the Atlantic to join him. Cox recalled the journey across the U.S. fondly.

“[We] came on the Queen Mary to New York, and then by train up to Chicago, rode the bus to Seattle,” he said. “Spent the whole week traveling … watching America go by, which for a 6-year-old kid was absolutely fantastic.”

Since living in Burien, Cox and his wife have returned several times to the U.S., especially to Long Beach, Calif., where his father lived until his death last year. But this is the first time he has been able to return to the Seattle area and specifically, Burien itself.

Herley and the Coxes met Burien City Manager Mike Martin and public information officer Steve Botkin, who presented the couple with “I Love Burien” tee shirts and “Burienopoly” — a Burien-based game modeled after the classic board game Monopoly.

The city of Burien’s name stems from one of its early founders, Gottlieb von Boorian, a German immigrant. Boorian came upon the already-established town in the 1880s, about ten years after its original founders discovered it and called it Sunnydale.

Burien Cox himself is now 28 and is called “Bo” by his parents. He lives on a farm in Welshpool near his parents, and just got married on May 18.

Burien Cox graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree in contemporary crafts. Cox is a technical engineer for the Shimizu Corporation and is the bassist in a local band, “The Misty Blue Trio.” He hopes to visit his namesake city for the first time next year.