Gordon Jones Jr.

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Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Katharine Jones [send private message], Gordon Jones [send private message], and Chad Jones [send private message]

Biography

His "formative years" were spent growing up on the family farm, which was located five miles north of Leland, Mississippi (in a loosely defined rural region known as "Napanee.") The family move in a red truck from Leflore County (Horseshoe Plantation) in 1939 just before his third birthday is his earliest childhood memory, followed closely by the memory of his newly born sister. Relatively isolated from friends in Leland as he grew up on the farm, he became especially close to his sister and parents. Much of his leisure time on the farm was spent with black children who lived nearby and with Allen Golden and Palmer Pate, two black share croppers who worked for his father on one of the last tenant farms (although that wasn't known at the time) in the Mississippi Delta.

Gordon was shaped by his early close relationship with his father, which included not only hunting and fishing, but numerous activities and interests that the two of them shared. While he was five to seven years old, his father took him to the movies every Saturday to see the old Grade B Westerns that were popular in the forties. Beginning in 1948, they shared an intense interest in Ted Williams and the Boston Red Sox, which resulted in compilation of numerous statistics, scrapbooks, and trips to Memphis and Little Rock to see exhibition baseball games. Always close to his mother, as well, and with a disposition similar to hers, Gordon and "Duck" became even closer after he became an adult.

Gordon Jr. was influenced by difficult times on the farm during the Second World War. Not only did his parents have little discretionary money, but there were few things to buy, as war-time rationing left only wooden toys and limited supplies of sugar, butter, gasoline, etc. It was a bitter pill when his comic books had to be recycled for the war effort. Songs sung in his first years at school as well as school-activities centered on the war and raising money, for example, by war-bonds and -stamps. Gordon remembers conversations with the German prisoners of war (based near Greenville, MS) who worked on his father's farm, as well as conversations between adults at the time of FDR's death, and the local interest in prize fights of Joe Louis. Although money was scarce, there was plenty of food, as beef, pork, and vegetables all were produced on the farm.

Gordon's penchant for orderliness and organization emerged in his management of his toys, extensive comic book collections, and scrapbooks. He enjoyed frequent visits with his family to Ingleside Plantation near Greenwood, where his father's sister lived with her family. Their daughter, Laurene, one year younger than Gordon, was his closest cousin. Although Gordon chopped and picked cotton, grew chickens, tended gardens, and did the usual farm-related activities, he realized very early that he had no wish to be a farmer. As characteristic of first-children, he and his cousin, tended to be responsible and good students in school. In addition, though not accurately characterized as "serious," both tended to be quiet and introspective.

The family house burned in December, 1950, while he and his sister were at the movies in Greenville with neighbors (Mr. and Mrs. Doyle Oswalt and Dolores). Their father was away during the fire, with their mother, "Duck," alone at home. Miraculously, she was not hurt, but the entire house and all its contents were destroyed. The family moved into Leland for a week and then moved to Greenwood two weeks before Christmas. There he became even closer to Laurene, who helped him assimilate into the teen-age culture of Greenwood. In the tenth grade, one of his friends came to a group and asked for help in deciding his family vote between the purchase of a television and an air conditioner (window unit), both of which were the first of these that the children had ever seen. The vote was unanimously for air conditioning, but the boy's parents bought both, to the teenagers' delight.

During high school, Gordon became interested in physics and especially fascinated by Einstein's "theory" of Relativity. He graduated from Greenwood High School in 1954, received a B.S.degree in Physics from Mississippi State University in 1958, and finished a Ph.D. in Physics from Duke University in 1964. He married Linda Dry from Siler City, N.C., 11-11-61. He was on the Physics faculty at Mississippi State from 1964 until 1991. Although he was an experimentalist and published over twenty articles in professional journals, he preferred teaching to research. He became interested in academic administration and served as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1983 until 1991. Gordon was selected as Dean of the School of Sciences and Mathematics at the College of Charleston in 1991, where he served in that capacity for ten years, formally retiring as Dean Emeritus in 2004. His most valued compliment was that he had built a reputation for integrity and was trusted by the faculty.

Gordon's birth certificate shows an incorrect date of birth, namely July 22, 1936. Since Gordon was born only thirty minutes after midnight, his parents initially decided to state that he had the same birthday as his mother, July 22. Later they changed their minds and decided to state his birthday correctly as the 23rd. However, they neglected to correct the birth certificate, which bears the date that they recorded while still wanting his birthday to be on the 22nd. Consequently, the Social Security System and the IRS, which use birth certificates as authentic records of birth, show the birthday as July 22. Gordon decided therefore to initiate as little confusion as possible after he became old enough to draw Social Security benefits and to list his birthday as July 22.

As their two boys, Scott and Chad, were growing up, Gordon and Linda were much involved in their lives, reading to them from the beginning, taking trips to the beach, emphasizing learning and education, participating in their activities by, for example, coaching their little baseball teams, building bird traps in the back yard, and chaperoning their trips with the school band. Gordon took Scott and Chad hunting, fishing, and shooting at the Starkville Gun Club. Both Gordon and Linda were intimately involved in the boys' educational plans, and both boys grew up being familiar with academic life on a college campus. Chad's decision to major in French (and International Business) rekindled Gordon's interest in the French language (begun in college). Unlike Chad, he didn't become a fluent speaker, but he did manage to read over fifty books of various sorts written in French.

At various times Gordon became passionate about fishing, hunting, skeet-shooting, and always about reading and studying generally. Though he never developed much musical proficiency, he spent many hours with the classical guitar.

Later, Gordon and Linda enjoyed traveling extensively as a couple and with friends.

Gordon's description: medium build, height: 5 ft. 8 in., weight 156 lbs.

(written by Gordon E. Jones, Jr., August 31, 2006; revised 2020)

Sources

• "Mounger - Monger and Allied Families," compiled by Louise F. Wilcox, 1991, page 130.

• 1940 U.S. Federal Census; Washington Mississippi; Roll: T627 -2076; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 76-33; Record for Gordon E. Jones, Junior

• U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2; Record for Gordon E. Jones

• North Carolina, Marriage Index, 1741-2004 Ancestry.com; Data Source: North Carolina State Archives; Record for Gordon Ervin Jones Jr.

• Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) Ancestry.com; Gale Research Company; Detroit, Michigan; Accession Number: 626632

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Gordon Ervin Jones, Jr. 06 Feb 2020