William Edward Jones

William Edward Jones died peacefully on August 3, 2022. He was the loving husband to Charlotte Elizabeth Carroll Jones and Elizabeth Loiacono Jones. Predeceased are his brothers Robert Rogers and James Hampton Jones. His children are David Scott and Derek Andrew Jones.

He was an exceptionally gifted athlete and excelled in both baseball and basketball. He loved to pitch and he admired Denny McLain’s 30 win season while living in the Detroit area. He especially loved the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Celtics and his heroes were Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and Bill Russell to name a few.

He was born on June 16, 1934 to Robert Bowen and Mary Louise Jones. He graduated from Wake Forest University in 1955 and went on to graduate school at San Jose State University. He then moved to Canada and started a family while he and his wife worked as primary school teachers. Then he moved back to the US and earned a PhD from the University of Michigan in 1969, where he had his early experiences working in community and urban development.

He then worked as an Assistant Dean at St. John’s University and worked as a recruiter and part-time as a community organizer and facilitator there in New York City until he took the position as Superintendent of Belchertown State School in western Massachusetts, where he did the most challenging work of his career. He initially was confronted with a facility that was at best dark and dreary and at worst unsanitary and potentially hazardous. He was confronted with a lawsuit filed the previous year by Benjamin Ricci claiming the conditions at the school violated the statutory and constitutional rights of its residents. Parallel suits were soon filed against four other state schools. These five suits were eventually consolidated by the court and in 1978, a consent decree was issued. He worked to ensure enforcement of the decree and in 1986 the court oversight was replaced with an independent Office of Quality Assurance to ensure continued compliance. He established partnerships in the community to facilitate the de-institutionalization of the school, believing many if not most of the residents could thrive and have a good life outside of the confines of Belchertown. The school formally closed in 1992.

He then worked in a nationally affiliated policy advocacy program (AAUAP) located in Silver Spring, Maryland where as director he successfully provided increased funding to ensure the group’s core mission to advocate on behalf of the developmentally disabled.

He then retired in 2002 and used his community development skills as a liaison in the Montgomery County Ombudsman program where he advocated for the needs of the Brighton Gardens Assisted Living community in Friendship Heights, Maryland. He was well loved in the community upon his passing.

Those wishing to make a memorial donation in honor of Mr. William Jones, please make check payable to White Oak Medical Center Foundation c/o Adventist HealthCare, 820 West Diamond Avenue, Ste. #600, Attn: Philanthropy, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20878. If you wish to make an online memorial donation, please use the following link: https://give.classy.org/WOMC

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