Gene Cox signed off Thursday after 33 years at Richmond’s WWBT, Channel 12. The venerable newsman, who arrived at the station in 1978, has spent more than 40 years working in television.

Cox reflected on his career — and his future — in a bittersweet post on his blog earlier this week.

I have been more fortunate than most. I got to spend a career doing exactly what I wanted to do. That’s one reason it is so difficult to let it go. I do not relish getting up each morning with vague purpose. And because I don’t play golf, or want to, there are some issues that must be faced.

I have written books, and plan to write more. But there is no shortage of books and I will have to struggle to get someone to read my stuff.  If my work were great, there would be no problem. But it’s not great.

“No Country for Old Men,” a classic piece of work by Cormac McCarthy, endures not only because it is a great story beautifully written, but because of its core message.  Life is different now than it was in the good old days, whenever they were.  This is a young person’s world.

There’s little demand for old men.

The local social media community is marking his departure with a blizzard of laudatory tweets and a hashtag (#genecox) to honor Cox, whose pithy reflections have made his Twitter feed one of the most popular in Richmond. 

If you want to read the tweets about Cox, click here.

If you want to read Cox’s Twitter feed, click here.

(Photo: Joe Mahoney/Richmond Times-Dispatch)