Dr. Ken Jones to retire

By Megan Spears
Staff Writer

Traveling, golfing and “becoming a beach bum” top Ken Jones’ list of activities for when he retires from Georgia College & State University on July 31.
Jones, the Dean of the Graduate School and Research Services, has been a member of the faculty and administrative staff at GC&SU since September 1976. His wife, Dr. JoAnn Jones, is the Dean of the School of Business, and they have one daughter, Joy Jones, a professor at Savannah State University.
Jones started his schooling with a B.S. in Economics at the University of Central Arkansas. He continued his education and received his Masters of Business Administrations from Northeast Louisiana University and received his Ph. D in Economics from Louisiana Tech University. He taught at the University of Arkansas before joining the faculty of GC&SU.
“The thing I will miss the most will be the interaction with the university community. I have always enjoyed working with our great faculty, staff, students and even fellow administrators most of the time,” said Dean Jones jokingly.
The faculty and staff at GC&SU consider it a privilege to have worked with Dean Jones and will greatly miss him. Marie Urquhart, secretary to Dean Jones, has worked closely with him for the last five years.
“His knowledge of the graduate programs and academia will be a loss for all of us at this university. His fairness in decision making and his willingness to answer any questions that enables us to become better educated on various topics will also be missed,” said Urquhart.
“Dr. Jones is very easy to work with and a great supervisor, and, as many know, it is often difficult to find these combined qualities in a boss. I will miss his ability to assess a situation and provide a fair-minded opinion or solution,” Leahdonna Douglas, coordinator of Office Services, said.
Jones is praised by many of his colleagues for his incredible sense of humor and his ability to laugh.
“I will truly miss his sense of humor, his listening ear, supportive attitude and amiable spirit,” said Ms. Paris Smith, director at the GC&SU Macon campus.
“People trust Dean Jones and work hard for him because they want to see him happy. He loves people, and people love him. He is generous, sympathetic, humble– and as smart a man as you will ever meet,” added Wayne Glowka, professor of English and former director of undergraduate research. “Of all things, however, I will miss his laughter the most.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 8 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry