David Alan Jones

Please note that in addition to the in-person memorial service listed below, a virtual event to share memories and celebrate Dave's life is scheduled for Sunday afternoon December 4, 2022 at 2pm, by Zoom.

David Alan Jones. July 14, 1937 - September 4, 2022

"We picked you out." Those are the words Dave remembered all his life. He was adopted by his parents, Alan and Carol Jones, at 10 days old, and never knew a time when he did not know that he had been wanted and chosen. He liked to sing, "I was a ten-dollar baby, and baby - look at me now!"

His parents lived in Demorest, GA, as home missionaries for the Congregational Church, later the United Church of Christ (UCC). In 1940, they moved to Putney, VT, and his life of the mind began at Hickory Ridge School. He loved reading and continued to be enthralled with words his whole life. In Willington, CT, his mother saved him from a bullying second grade teacher by teaching him to read cursive.

In 1947, the family moved to the small town of Merom, IN, where Alan became the director of a UCC camp and conference center, and Dave became the glue between the center and the town. Basketball ruled, and his team, the Rockets, made it to the state quarter finals. Watch the movie "Hoosiers" to understand!

His world changed at Oberlin College. Merom had offered no senior English class, but freshman year Bill Sellers both taught him how to write and exposed him to authors he'd grow to love. Dave joked that before that class he would've thought, "Keats was a dog food!"

The next summer, Alan sent Dave to a work camp in France where more worlds opened, and he started reading the New York Times. He majored in Government and thought about teaching until a Rockefeller Fellowship sent him to Union Theological Seminary in New York to test out ministry.

Nancy Brooks, from Atlanta and Duke, arrived at Union in the fall of 1961, his senior year, and they shared an evening class taught by that marvelous Quaker, Douglas Steere. One night, Steere talked about D.H. Lawrence, and since they both had recently read one of his novels, the conversation continued at the snack bar during a break until Dave abruptly asked, "How are you on the race thing?" Nancy replied, "I carried my picket sign." "Fine," said Dave; "Back to Lawrence." Dave had had one southern girlfriend who was "separate but equal", and he wanted it clear from the start that that was unacceptable. By Thanksgiving they were engaged, and married in June after his graduation. He was ordained into the UCC ministry and began serving a small church in Granville, IL, in the fall of 1962. Parish ministry both confirmed his sense of call and his recognition that he thrived when his mind was engaged in serious debate. Margie's birth in 1964 greatly expanded his capacity to love!

Dow Kirkpatrick, who had been Nancy's minister in Atlanta, now was at First Methodist Church in Evanston, IL, where he asked Dave to join his staff as Youth Minister, an ecumenical adventure. At the same time, Edmund Perry encouraged Dave to do an MA in Religion at Northwestern University. A year and a half later, Dave moved into full-time academics, and began a Ph.D. in American History. Brooks was born in 1967 and Rachel in 1970 while graduate school pressed on.

In the fall of 1971, Dave began his teaching career at NC Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, NC. Friends drove us, the children, the cat, the dog, and the U-Haul from Evanston to South Grace Street. This was a major move, one that expanded our family again when Julius Hansen, our best friend from Granville, came to live with us until his death 4 years later. Jules said he had been a part of three families - his family of birth, his family of marriage, and his family of love.

For 27 years, Dave taught courses on U.S. history and religion, engaging students in the life of the mind, challenging them to read and consider new perspectives, often using sports to lure them in. His tale of three baseball umpires taught life lessons as well as provided an important lens through which to view history: Said the first, "I call 'em the way I see 'em," to which the second replied, "I call 'em the way they are," leading the third to state conclusively, "They ain't nothin' 'til I call 'em."

Dave published some articles, but never wrote an academic book because his time was spent on writings important to the people around him. Nancy said that his "books were often two pages of typed comments on students' assigned papers." He researched and wrote A History of the First Presbyterian Church in Rocky Mount, and an Oral History of the American Association of University Women in Rocky Mount, the latter being a particular point of pride because it documented and told the stories of white and black women who worked together to improve race relations and the community. His writings also included lectures, presentations, prepared book reviews, and discussion notes for sessions that he led or joined as a longtime active Fellow of the Society for Values in Higher Education, and the Thomas Hardy Society. He wrote poems and hymns, including the NC Wesleyan Alma Mater. He left a legacy of thoughtful and personal homilies and prayers written for services of marriage, baptism, and funerals which he officiated for family, friends, former students, and others.

Dave's office door at Wesleyan was always open to students, faculty, staff, and to people from the community. His unofficial office in Rocky Mount was at China Inn, where he frequently lunched with friends and colleagues. Dave and Nancy's spirits, as well as those of the Wesleyan soccer and golf teams, were boosted greatly by the arrival of their Welsh "other son" Graeme Stewart in spring, 1986. Dave was a constant and consistent presence in the community, where he served on committees, taught Sunday school, volunteered for campaigns, shot free throws to raise money for Wesleyan, emceed Tar River Swing Band concerts, and with Nancy for many years delivered Meals on Wheels. His care for people and incredible memory allowed him to recall specific details of a particular marching band event or sports play with many of Nancy's high school students and his children's classmates even decades after the events. All who knew him witnessed his lifelong devotion to the Detroit Tigers, and his later in life embrace of Duke University basketball, as he was a regular presence for both men's and women's games at Cameron Indoor Stadium. A consistent source of joy were good friends and good books on Sebago Lake, Maine.

Dave brought this same zest for life and people, broad interests, and love of music to the Carol Woods Retirement Community in Chapel Hill, where he and Nancy moved after retirement. At Carol Woods, Dave found old friends, his college music teacher, a new audience for his jokes, stories, and baseball lore, a writing group, and a chorale which he and Nancy both joined. He joined a local UCC church, and actively participated in two book groups, one at the church and one of retired ministers, until he no longer could. He and Nancy chaired the Carol Woods social committee, welcoming newcomers in official and unofficial capacities. Dave was incredibly grateful for the community of friends he lived amongst at Carol Woods during his last 12 years.

The same could be said of his gratitude and ours to the UNC hospital surgeons and staff who served him through multiple operations during the past ten years, with our greatest thanks to the Carol Woods nursing staff during his final yearlong struggle with pulmonary fibrosis. They were so thoughtful and attentive. He died early in the morning of September 4th, 2022, with Nancy beside him. Dave is survived by his wife, Nancy; daughter Margie Jones and son-in-law Russ Haddad and grandson Geordan Haddad; son Brooks Jones and grandson Liam Garrett-Jones and granddaughter Ellie Garrett-Jones; daughter Rachel Jones; and dog Earnest. Among many extended family members and those claimed as family, Dave is survived by grandchildren adopted by love Cameron Stewart, Justina Stewart, Charlie Tutterow, Angus Tutterow, and Josephine Watts.

When Dave's father died in 1984, Ed Perry told him it was time for the good book on adoption. "My Father's House" told that story, the story of chosenness, the story of open arms and hearts. And no words express the significance or the depth of that chosenness better than the opening line of Chapter One: "We didn't bring you into the world," my father said as I followed him through the kitchen door and into our back yard, "we picked you out."

https://www.amazon.com/My-Fathers-House-Life-Adoption/dp/0595374611#customerReviews

Gifts in Dave's memory to Hospice, Amnesty international, or to the Carol Woods Charitable Fund for Staff Enrichment would be very appropriate.

An in-person memorial service for Dave will be held on Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 2pm, followed by reception, at the Carol Woods campus in Chapel Hill. The family encourages that attendees be vaccinated and boosted, and that non-Carol Woods residents have a negative home test the morning of the service. A virtual event to share memories and celebrate Dave's life is scheduled for Sunday afternoon December 4, 2022 at 2pm, by Zoom.