Royce Jones will be buried at Oakridge Cemetery today. His passing represents a tremendous loss for his family, friends and the Tifton community.

His friends are many. His accomplishments great. His contributions to Tifton and Tift County are almost too numerous to name.

He owned Jones Construction Company, Double A Concrete Products and Tifton Paint and Supply. Jones worked at the family construction business as a teenager and left only to go to Auburn University and serve in the military. He never worked anywhere else and never even went on a job interview.

Jones Construction routinely builds multi-million-dollar projects such as the University of Georgia’s Tifton Campus Conference Center, a hatchery for Sanderson farms and the latest addition to Tift Regional Medical Center.

“He will be sorely missed,” said Pait Willis, president of South Georgia Banking Company, and one of Jones’ long-time friends. Willis met Jones many years ago when they were residents in Ty Ty. “In the 1940s we became acquainted in Ty Ty,” Willis said. “We were all Baptists so we would go to church together.”

Willis said Jones was responsible for helping to build the bank’s very first office in Omega. “He was involved in every office we have built since then,” Willis said. “He joined our board of directors in 1975.”

“We hate to lose him,” Willis said. “It wasn’t expected. I was shocked when I heard he had died on Sunday.”

Willis said that about a month ago Jones went with him to scout out some bank property in Cordele. “That was after he was diagnosed with cancer,” Willis said. “But I could always call on him for support and advice. That’s the way he was.”

Earl Denham, president of the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce, echoed Willis’ sentiments about Jones and said that he was greatly saddened by Jones’ death. “Royce unselfishly contributed a great deal to this state and this community,” Denham said. “He was an active member of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce. I could call him or go by his office and talk about a prospective project, and he would take as much time as was needed to explain to me the options for doing certain things.”

Denham called Jones a quiet man who led by example. “He worked hard behind the scenes to make this a better community, and asked for no credit,” Denham said. “He was a man of character and integrity and these admirable traits he passed to his children.”

Denham summed up his feelings by saying, “May God bless the Jones family.”

Dr. John Dorminy, chairman of the Tift Regional Medical Center Foundation, said that Jones was a committed community leader who will be greatly missed. “He was an active member of the TRMC Foundation,” Dorminy said. “His contributions not only physically improved the hospital through Jones Construction, but through his donations to the Foundation, he ensured quality of care for all patients served by the hospital.”

Sherry Miley, marketing director at the Georgia Agrirama, also remembered Jones’ contributions to the living history museum. “He donated his engineering abilities and skills and his own construction equipment to help us construct a storage facility for artifacts,” she said. “And he helped engineer our road bed and was instrumental in laying the foundation of our train tracks for the Agrirama.” She said Jones also helped design the Opry Shelter.

On Tuesday, three of Jones’ four children — Jeremy, Jonathan and Joni — sat down with The Gazette to talk about their father. His son Jason had been on a trip to England when the death came and had not yet made it back to the family home in Tifton.

“My Dad was a plain-spoken man who was always the same no matter where you found him,” Joni said.

“He had his work voice,” Jeremy added. “He was decisive.”

“He was always even-keeled,” Jonathan said of his father. “He was a man of strong character and compassion.”

“He was always willing to do for other people,” Joni said. “He didn’t mind it when anyone would call and say they needed some help.”

Jonathan said he had found it “humbling” the way his father’s employees responded to his death and the way they respected him. “The employees have made a large investment in our lives, as we have theirs,” he said. “It’s an awesome responsibility.”

Both Jeremy and Jonathan form the management team for the family businesses that was established before Jones’ death.

Jeremy recalled, “He said many times, ‘I work for them now,’ or he would call to see if we approved of something or other.” He said that was his father’s way of backing up and letting them handle management.

The day before he died, Jeremy spoke with his father about the business. His father told him, “I don’t have to worry about it any more.”

All the children agreed their father had been a good teacher. He had the ability to recognize talent and then not second guess.

“We’ve got each other,” Jeremy said of the business. “For 20 or 30 years Dad didn’t have anyone.”

They said the Double A Concrete business was named after their grandfather. “Everyone called him Double A,” Jeremy said. His name was Arlen Alonzo.

“My daddy was our rock,” Joni said. “We are a very close family.”

The children recalled the family tradition their father had established of going out to lunch together every Friday. “He didn’t want to interfere with our family time with our own families,” Jonathan said.

“Every year we all went on vacation together to the beach,” Joni said. “He didn’t really like time off except to be with his family.”

The children all agreed that when it came to their father’s life, “He had no regrets.”

They also agreed that their parents were “ a committed couple who were very devoted to each other.”

“They were a team together and very seldom apart,” Joni said.

They recalled how much their father loved to eat. “My daddy loved to eat,” Joni said. “He knew every good restaurant on any travel itinerary.” The Georgia Sea Grill in St. Simons where the family beach house is located was his favorite restaurant. “He had his own table there,” Joni said. “When he got sick the staff sent him one of those singing get well cards.”

“He supported us, we didn’t want for anything,” Joni said.

The children laughed together to recall in high school Joni drove “a demo from Prince.” She said two of her brothers also drove the old car. “By the time they got it the car was needing a quart of oil a day,” she said, adding that none of the family cars ever went to the junkyard because someone always wanted them. They were given away or their father arranged creative financing.

They recalled that asking their father for money was “a dreaded thing.” Sometimes friends or employees would come by to borrow some money and they said their father always saw it as “a teaching time.” “He would always give them the money,” Joni said, “but they got the lesson along with the money.”

Services for Royce Jones will be held at 11 a.m. today at Northside Baptist Church where he was a member, a deacon and chairman of the finance committee. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to the Northside Baptist Church Building Fund.



To contact reporter Jana Cone, call 382-4321, ext. 208.