District Governor Nominee: Jay Jones

Jay was born and grew up in Junction City, Kansas, a small farming community of about 10,000 people 120 miles west of Kansas City. His father was a Custom Tailor who opened a tailor shop and specialized in making riding breeches when Ft. Riley was the U.S. Army Calvary School.

Jay’s first Rotary exposure was during his senior year in high school when he and seven other seniors were selected to be “Junior Rotarians.” For a month, they each had the privilege of attending the meetings of the Rotary Club of Junction City.

He enrolled in Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas (also known as the “Little Apple”) and ultimately graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army assigned to Army Intelligence and Security. He was on the university swimming team until the building housing the swimming pool burned to the ground and the team was disbanded.

He went on active duty in July 1964, spent three months at the U.S. Army Infantry School in Ft. Benning, Georgia and two months at the U.S. Army Security Agency School in Ft. Devens, Massachusetts. He finally arrived at his first permanent duty station in Ft. Lewis, Washington in January 1965.

The middle of that year, he met a young Army Nurse, Carol Card, and, as they say, the rest is history. Carol received orders to go to South Korea and shipped out in January 1966. Eventually, Jay followed arriving in Seoul in March 1966. They were married by the Mayor of the Special City of Seoul in April 1966. They were both promoted to the rank of Captain while in South Korea. They returned to the U.S. and were released from active duty in April 1967. Daughter, Deborah, was born later in 1967 and son, Kenneth (Kent), was born in 1970.

After his release from active duty, Jay returned to work for Procter & Gamble in Kansas City, Kansas and held a variety of management assignments. In early 1974, he was offered a transfer to a manufacturing plant P&G had purchased in Mataró, Spain, and became the Plant Engineer and Project Team Leader during a major plant upgrading that resulted in a 125% increase in plant throughput. The family returned to the United States in late-1978 where Jay became the Plant Engineer for P&G’s Ivorydale Soap Plant in St. Bernard, Ohio.

In 1982, Jay left Procter & Gamble and went to work for the Ross Products Division of Abbott Laboratories in Sturgis, Michigan where he remained until his retirement in 2002. He held positions as Maintenance Manager, Project Engineering Manager, and Manager of Engineering Operations.

While living in Ohio and Michigan, Jay became an avid bicyclist riding several thousand miles annually. He also took up racquetball and played several times a week. He tried his hand at golf for a couple of years after moving to Arizona, but finally grew embarrassed of inflicting his poor skill on other golfers and retired his clubs.

Deborah pursued a career in teaching and has taught Spanish and mathematics at the high school level since her graduation from Central Michigan University in 1988. In 1992, she completed her MA in Secondary Education. She married a local attorney in New Castle, Indiana where they are raising Jay’s and Carol’s grandchildren – Jenna and Ryan.

Kent received a Bachelor’s of Architecture and a BS in Environmental Design from Ball State University in 1993. He is a Registered Architect in Indiana and Nevada. He has worked in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, South Bend, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois, and, most recently, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

By 1996, Jay had, finally, attained a management level that would allow him to leave work at lunchtime every Monday and he became a member of the Rotary Club of Sturgis.

Jay’s other passion, besides Rotary, is the Boy Scouts of America. He is an Eagle Scout. He has been involved in the Scouting program for more than 52 years including four and a half years as the Council President for the Southwest Michigan Council. He has attended eight National Annual Meetings and was on the National Jamboree Staff at Camp Fort Hill, Virginia in 2007.

During their time in Sturgis and in addition to his Rotary and Scouting involvement, Jay served terms as the President of Sturgis Home Health Care and Hospice, the Doyle Community Center, and the Kalamazoo Chapter of the American Society of Plant Engineers.

In 2002, Jay and Carol retired and moved to Gold Canyon, Arizona, where they currently reside. Although not a native Arizonian, Carol and her family moved to the Phoenix area when she was only three years old. She attended Arizona State University and graduated with a BS as a Registered Nurse. She completed her working career as the In-home Services Coordinator for the St. Joseph County Commission on Aging. When Jay retired, Carol stated (rather emphatically) that she wanted to, “Go home.”

Jay has always strived to order his life based on the Scout Oath and the twelve points of the Scout Law. When he joined Rotary, he added the Four-Way Test to his list of guidelines for life.

Jay has served as a Community Service Chair (Sturgis, MI), Club Treasurer (4 years), Club Secretary (2 months), Club President (22 months), Assistant Governor (2 years), District Club Visioning Chair (1 year), District Finance Committee (1 year), and served on RYLA Camp Staff for 2 years. He is a 2009 graduate of the Arizona Tri-District Leadership Academy.

“Rotary International is a dynamic organization. It is constantly reinventing itself and valiantly seeking to remain relevant in the world’s ever-changing environment. Rotary Clubs need to learn how to keep up with this seemingly increasing rate of change. District 5510 has only one purpose: to help the clubs within the district accomplish this monumental task while not abdicating the core values that have made Rotary International a leading volunteer service organization for more than 100 years.”