Leland Worcester Jones M.D.

JONES, LELAND WORCESTER, MD, FACS, beloved husband of Barbara B. Jones, died in his home in Vero Beach, FL at the age of 88, on April 3, 2008.

Dr. Jones was born January 28, 1920 in Providence, RI and was a winter visitor to Vero Beach since 1998 moving here full time in 2003 from Warwick, RI.

He had a private practice for 30 years in Providence, RI before relocating his office to the Warwick, Rhode Island Area and was a veteran of WW II serving in the U.S. Navy as a Flight Surgeon. He was a graduate of Cranston High School in Rhode Island and both Brown University and Yale University College of Medicine. In 1954 he founded and directed the first catheterization laboratory in Rhode Island at Miriam Hospital then performed the first successful open heart operation in New England in 1955. As the Assistant to the Chief of Thoracic Surgery at National J. H. in Denver, CO, he assisted in the worlds third open heart surgery. He founded the Division of Cardiac, Thoracic & Vascular Surgery and the second center for open heart surgery at St. Josephs Hospital where he was elected president of the medical staff and appointed as a trustee. He then co-founded the Rhode Island Interagency Council on Smoking & Health. He initiated the practice of performing removal of a cancer filled lung just before his lecture, then allowing students, if attentive to glove and feel the fresh lung still alive with cancer in it. THIS WAS THE MOST EFFECTIVE DETERRENT TO SMOKING HE FOUND. His memberships include sixteen national professional societies and he was inducted into the City of Cranston Hall of Fame. At the Roger William General Hospital he founded the Division of Cardiac, Thoracic & Vascular and was honored by the RWGH House Staff as the outstanding attending surgeon and teacher, 1971-1973. He was an invited guest lecturer at the New England Pediatric Society in 1961 where he first described his Extra pleural Repair for Esophageal Atresia and presented the results of his first 20 cases. He was chairman of the board of trustees and served as staff physician of Barrington College. In 1997 he was honored by the Rhode Island Foundation for Cardiac Children for his pioneer surgery in Cardiac Crippled Children, 1993. From 1992-1998 he co-owned and operated with his wife Barbara, Jones Moving & Storage, a one hundred year old company started by his grandfather and run by his late father and brother. He was a member of the Rotary Club in Providence since 1954 where he received two Paul Harris awards, past member of the Rhode Island Country Club, Barrington and East Greenwich Yacht Clubs and the Brown Faculty Club. He was a current member of the Vero Beach Yacht Club, a past president of the American Heart Association Rhode Island affiliate and was honored in 1997 as a pioneer in heart surgery, 1953-1998, a member of the Navy League of America, and an avid swimmer and sailor.

Survivors include his wife of 29 years, Barbara B. Jones of Vero Beach; 5 sons, 5 daughters, a nephew Everett R. Jones, 2 step-sons, 13 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.

Dr. Jones was predeceased by his first wife Anice Lynette Garmany Jones , brother Everett R. Jones and son Richard Jones.

Services: A service will be held at the first Baptist Church of America in Providence, RI, where Leland was a longtime member, at a later date.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, Miriam Hospital of Providence, RI or the St. Joseph's Hospital of Providence, RI.

Arrangements are under the direction of Cox-Gifford-Seawinds Funeral Home and Crematory, Vero Beach, Florida. Condolences may be sent through www.seawindsfh.com/obit.php.