LIHU'E, Kaua'i — An Oregon man who gave up his material possessions to live off the land in Kaua'i's Kalalau Valley this summer in an adventure reminiscent of the "Into the Wild" book and movie died suddenly Aug. 14 of an acute respiratory illness.

Kenny Cox, 31, formerly of Eugene, arrived in May and for 70 days lived in the open, gathering and eating fruit, plants and even grass after he ran out of rice and beans. Kaua'i residents who befriended him after he came out of the wilderness area in mid-July recalled him as free-spirited and down to earth.

"I was so impressed with him as a genuine person," longtime Hanalei resident Jack Smith said of Cox. "He was very quiet and shy and introverted, but he was comfortable with who he was. ... He was a sweet spirit."

Cox had flown his parents here for a visit on Aug. 8, but just days after they arrived, he complained of a headache and general soreness, a fever over 102 degrees and rapid breathing, his father, George Cox, said in an interview with The Advertiser. But Kenny refused to go to a doctor and said he'd been through something like this before.

NOT A '9-TO-5 GUY'

His parents called an ambulance late the night of Aug. 13 because Cox's breathing was so labored. He died of acute hemorrhagic pneumonia with sepsis early the next morning while en route to Wilcox Hospital, doctors told George Cox.

"I don't think he had any idea of the severity of his illness," George Cox said.

George Cox brought with him to Kaua'i a copy of the book "Into the Wild," which tells the true story of a young man who rejected a conventional lifestyle, gave up all his money and died while living out his journey of self-discovery in the Alaska wilderness. The book, written in 1996, was made into a movie of the same name in 2007.

"People have told me 'that's Kenny,' " the elder Cox told the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper.

Though Kenny Cox embraced his wilderness venture, George Cox speculates that he may have been weakened by it, particularly by drinking untreated stream water. Even after returning to "civilization," he was still camping under a tarp with a sleeping bag and no modern conveniences.

Cox said his son told him he failed as a spear fisherman during his wilderness stay but did help a hunter catch and cook a wild boar in the valley, which he said was "some of the best food I'd had in a while."

The Kalalau Valley foray wasn't the first time Kenny Cox had gone alone on an adventure, his father said. One time he hitchhiked in Mexico for seven months with little money, eating from garbage bins.

Even when Kenny was at home, he "wasn't a 9-to-5 guy." After graduating from the University of Oregon in 2001, he bought an older home, fixed it up and rented rooms, while he lived in the backyard in a tepee.

FORMER ATHLETE

Though George Cox is shocked that his son is dead, he draws some peace from the connections Kenny made here with others who shared his interests in "being organic and free," he said.

"Kenny was down here trying to live off the land and be close to nature and not impact the environment too much, so we had a lot in common in that respect," said Joyous Macabea, who had known Cox several weeks. The Coxes were staying at her home for a few days when he went to the hospital.

"He was very free-spirited in his way of life, not pursuing a conventional way toward material gain," said Josh Dubin, a Moloa'a farm worker. "He was very much on his own journey."

His new friends had no idea Kenny Cox had been one of the nation's top prep wrestlers in high school. But his college wrestling record at the University of Oregon had more losses than wins, and he told the Register-Guard in 2001: "I'm ready to move on. There are no hard feelings, and I'm excited about a life beyond wrestling."

High school wrestling coach Randy Robinson called Cox "easily one of the greatest athletes ever to come out of the state of Oregon."

But even a healthy young person can be knocked down quickly by certain diseases, said Dr. James Ireland, an assistant clinical professor at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's John A. Burns School of Medicine.

ILLNESS A MYSTERY

Ireland said he can't speculate as to what specifically made Cox ill. "There's probably a list of 100 things that could have done this," he said, including pneumonia caused by a virus, bacteria or fungus, and leptospirosis, a bacterial disease that people can get from contaminated stream water in Hawai'i.

"What's unfortunate about these overwhelming infections, whether from bacteria, virus or whatever, is there is a small window in which you can be treated," Ireland said.

Not long after coming out of Kalalau, Kenny Cox heard a message on generosity at the Church of Christ in Hanalei, which moved him to offer his family plane fare to visit him, George Cox said.

"I think sometimes when God knows the end of your days, he orchestrates events for your leaving," George Cox said. "So now can be a time of rejoicing instead of a time of sorrow."

Kenny Cox is survived by his parents and three sisters, Lisa Wood, of Colorado; Hannah Strimmer, of Corvallis, Ore.; and Christa Dizon, of Portland, Ore.

Ron Bellamy of the Eugene Register-Guard contributed to this report.