Harold Jones

HAROLD L. JONES, Ph.D.

August 1, 1936-November 29, 2025

Where do I begin to describe the life of the most kind, brave, honest, and true man I have ever had the privilege of knowing and loving?

Thirty-six years ago, we pledged before God that we would love, honor, and cherish each other for the rest of our lives. Not knowing what life had in store for us, only that whatever it was we would face it together, we embarked on what was to become an incredible journey. In that time, we:

• Lived in seven states
• Built two houses and two shop buildings (one with our own hands)
• Remodeled six houses
• Shared our lives with 21 fur babies, including 11 cats, 8 dogs, a guinea pig, and a hedgehog
• Watched meteor showers
• Read books out loud to each other
• Listened to music together
• Rode horses in the Montana mountains and on a California beach
• Shared a meal of bread and cheese while dangling our feet in an Idaho mountain river
• Traveled to Europe twice
• Walked across an ancient Roman bridge
• Saw the Little Mermaid in Denmark (the real one)
• Traveled to Canada many times
• Traveled to 45 different states
• Hugged a redwood tree
• Visited 12 national parks and national monuments
• Watched Old Faithful erupt
• Witnessed half a million bats fly out of a cavern
• Walked among the radio telescopes at the Very Large Array
• Stood at the eastern- and western-most points in the continental United States
• Dipped our toes in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
• Witnessed a tsunami
• Watched whale migrations
• Lost sisters
• Gained grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren
• Survived a pandemic
• Faced heart attacks, open heart surgery, gall bladder surgery, four joint replacements, serious finger cuts, serious allergic reactions, and numerous other health issues
• Made friends and lost friends
• Laughed together, cried together, argued and made up.
• Made memories every day.

Through all life presented us, we were steadfast in our devotion to each other. We loved, honored, and cherished each other as we promised that day. Although the Lord called you home, I will continue to love, honor, and cherish you, my husband, my friend, my soul mate.

Your daughter Jori Jones, your sons Jeffry (Kim) Jones, Jonathan (Theresa) Jones, your eight grandchildren, ten great grandchildren, two great-great grandchildren, and two more great-great grandchildren soon to enter this world will continue to make you proud.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Your legacy will live on in the thousands of lives you touched in your fifty-seven years as a public-school teacher and a teacher educator. All those young people are out in the world putting into practice the lessons you taught them. It made a difference that you lived and lived well in this world.

Your loving wife,

Katherine