Jones, Robert Bruce 1932 - 2019

JONES, HOVLAND, HUNT, JOHNSON, RICE

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 11/9/2019 at 11:13:06

U.S. Veteran
Robert Bruce (Bob) Jones, age 87, of Decorah, IA, passed away Sunday morning, October 20, 2019, at Wellington Place in Decorah. He had been diagnosed only two weeks earlier with untreatable lung disease.

A memorial service will be held at First Lutheran Church in Decorah at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, November 9, 2019 with Officiants Pastor Melissa Bills and Pastor Paul H. Christenson, a family friend of long standing. Visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the church.

A second service will be held at 11:00 a.m. (with visitation beginning at 10:00) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 at Red Oak Grove Lutheran Church, with his niece, Pastor Laurie Jeddeloh, officiating. Inurnment in the church cemetery will follow. The church is located at 30456 Mower Freeborn Road, rural Blooming Prairie, MN.

Bob Jones was born to Hugh Morris Jones and Martha Parry Jones on February 17, 1932, in Cresco, Iowa, in the depths of the Depression and in the midst of a blizzard. (Eight years later, Bob and his parents would be caught in a more famous storm, the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940, when the completely unexpected, bitter white-out conditions caused Bob’s father to drive their car into a ditch, about a mile from their farm. Only the distant flickering gas light from a neighbor’s kitchen, which they managed to struggle towards through the midst of the storm, and in completely unsuitable clothes, saved them from severe frostbite or worse.)

The farm where Bob grew up was in York Township, Fillmore County, MN. He was baptized at Old Bristol Grove Welsh Church and attended a one-room school, East York School, District 88, about half a mile from his home. Bob was in the first class of students able to take a school bus to and from the high school in Harmony, MN each day. He graduated in 1948, one of 33 in his high school class.

Bob enrolled at Iowa State University in 1948, majoring in Chemical Engineering, and graduated in 1952. He was employed at Dow Corning Corporation in Midland, MI until 1953 when he was conscripted into the Army Chemical Corps to help start up the first US chemical plant to make the nerve agent Sarin.

He returned to Dow Corning in 1955, and was married to Darlene Peterson on December 27 that year. He enrolled at the University of Michigan Law School in September, 1957, graduating in 1960. He and Darlene then moved to Chicago (and lived there or in suburban River Forest for 48 years), where he joined the Chicago law firm now known as Fitch, Even, Tabin and Flannery. He practiced Intellectual Property law with the firm, concentrating on litigation, and was for many years managing partner.

In 1963, Bob and Darlene adopted his sister’s five children—Nancy, Martha, Eda, Wendy, and Hugh, then 15, 10, 9, 7 and 4 years old, respectively—after the deaths of their birth parents, a decision that took no small amount of courage. Bob was 31 years old at the time. He saw all the children graduate from college and move on to professional careers.

Bob retired from practice in 2006 and moved with Darlene to Decorah, IA in 2008, into a home they had designed and loved.

Bob was meticulous and exacting in virtually everything he did, from shaping arguments in his legal briefs; to drafting resolutions and code modifications for the Village of River Forest (which he served as President from 1989-1993); to refining by-laws for the River Forest Tennis Club (which he also served as President for a couple of years, without ever having played a game of tennis in his life); to dovetailing drawers and mitering corners for furniture and door trim that he built; to turning a basic pole shed into a first-rate country cabin; to constructing—with Hugh’s and Wendy’s help—a massive Purple Martin house of at least 24 rooms, weighing at least 200 pounds with a poured concrete base to support the pole and structure. (Unfortunately, and to his chagrin, starlings became squatters in the house before the intended residents had even a chance.)

Bob never let grass grow under his feet, always building or fixing one thing or another, as befits someone who grew up on a farm. Anything around the house that could break, he could repair, be it a dishwasher, stove, washing machine, dryer or chimney flue. He rewired and reframed rooms, put windows where there hadn’t been any before, and single-handedly dismantled a massive cast iron spider furnace in the basement with a sledge hammer to make room for something less ghoulish.

Bob was the one who often brought Darlene’s flamboyant, creative ideas to fruition. When she had the thought of surprising people at a Christmas party by creating a tree that was suspended from the ceiling rather than supported by a trunk on the floor, Bob was the one who figured out how to put together layers of fir boughs of increasing diameter separated from one another by wire and fishing line, such that each layer swiveled more or less independently, resulting in a hanging and moving Christmas tree. (This invariably flummoxed guests, particularly if they brushed up against it while drinking.) And when Darlene chaired a benefit for the Infant Welfare Association of Oak Park and River Forest at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Winslow House (his first independent commission in 1893), it fell to Bob, with the help of his brother-in-law Francis Peterson, to remove the original heavy, intricately inlaid Frank Lloyd Wright front door and saw one and a half inches off the bottom to accommodate the carpet that one of the interior designers had installed in the entrance. (You can be sure that he never told the village historical preservationists about that.)

Bob was a proud Welshman who, befitting his heritage, loved to sing with his strong tenor voice. Over the years he went to many a Gymanfa Ganu around the country, Welsh festivals of sacred hymns, sung in four-part harmony. He sang for many years in the church choir at United Lutheran Church in Oak Park, IL and appreciated a range of music, from the classical world of Ravinia and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the down home jazz of Louisiana.

While Welsh to the core, Bob also over the years developed an affection for things Norwegian, given Darlene’s influence and that of her Peterson family. (The affection encompassed lefse and pickled herring, but did not extend to lutefisk, as it happens.) Bob became a strong advocate and supporter of Luther College, sending four of his five children there (the fifth attended St. Olaf), and along with Darlene, bequeathing their Decorah home, located on the edge of campus, to the College.

Bob travelled the world, over and over, and in his last years visited Costa Rica, Malta, and southern France. There he went to the Lascaux Cave and checked off one of the final items on his bucket list.

Bob is survived by his five children and spouses: Nancy Jones and Michael Hovland, Martha and Carl Hunt, Eda Johnson, Wendy and Larry Rice, and Hugh and Cathy Jones; by eight grandchildren: Sven Hovland, Bjorn Hovland, Daniel Hunt, Katherine Hunt Yahvah, Lise Rice, Lora Rice, James Jones and Marlene Jones; by three great-grandchildren: Kaitlyn Fry, James Fry, and Jolene Yahvah; by sisters-in-law, Evelyn Jones, Louise Peterson, and Marge Peterson, and brother-in-law, Francis Peterson; by many nieces, nephews and other family members; by his special friend, Kathryn Vigen, who had a committed and loving relationship with Bob during his final years; and by countless friends near and far who held Bob dear and will miss him deeply.

Preceding Bob in death were his parents, his wife, Darlene Peterson, his siblings Mary Elaine Parsons and William Jones, and his son-in-law Kevin Johnson.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that gifts in his memory be directed to First Lutheran Church, 604 W. Broadway, Decorah, IA 52101; or to the Hiram Peterson Scholarship Endowment, Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, IA 52101.

Source: Fjelstul Funeral Home database

Winneshiek Obituaries maintained by Bruce Kuennen.
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