Gift Establishes Chair in Memory of Bernice Jones

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Harvey and Bernice Jones Charitable Trust has made a $750,000 gift to establish the Bernice Jones Endowed Chair in Community in the University of Arkansas J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Named for the late Bernice Jones, noted philanthropist and widow of trucking magnate Harvey Jones, the Jones Chair will bring together community and campus resources to build stronger, more vibrant communities in the state. The chair will also help further strengthen the existing partnership between the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and the Harvey and Bernice Jones Center for Families in Springdale.

"We are extremely grateful to trustee Joel Carver and to the Jones Charitable Trust," said UA Chancellor John A. White. "The Jones Chair in Community will be a powerful force in recruiting and retaining faculty whose teaching, research and service will improve the quality of life for all Arkansans. Mrs. Jones left an incredible legacy of philanthropy, so it is quite fitting that she be memorialized through a chair that will continue to strengthen the Arkansas communities that she supported so generously throughout her life."

The Jones Chair will oversee initiatives in teaching, research and outreach to improve educational programs in schools, match people with the skills needed in today’s changing economy and assist ethnic minority communities, such as the growing Hispanic population in the state.

"The Bernice Jones Chair in Community will be responsible for working with local and state agencies to develop new models of service and outreach that demonstrate how building trusting communities is both profitable and beneficial," said Donald Bobbitt, Dean of Fulbright College. "I am quite pleased to announce the appointment of Daniel Ferritor, chancellor emeritus and professor of sociology, to this important position."

Within the University of Arkansas, partners in this effort could include faculty and resources in several other departments and programs, including political science, rural sociology, Spanish, public policy and Latin American Studies.

This gift will be matched by $750,000 from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation’s $300 million gift to the university in 2002. Investment returns on the total endowment of $1.5 million will be used to enhance teaching, research and service programs conducted by the holder of the Jones Chair.

William Schwab, chair of the sociology and criminal justice department, said, "This endowed chair represents one of the most important gifts in our department’s 58-year history. The Bernice Jones Endowed Chair will serve Arkansas communities by expanding opportunities for faculty and student research and developing programsthat strengthen the links between families and their communities. Through it, we will be able to attract faculty of the caliber of Dan Ferritor, our former chancellor, who has given decades of remarkable service to this campus and to northwest Arkansas. I know that as the first holder of the chair, Dan will offer the leadership we need in expanding the legacy of Bernice Jones."

Jones, the 97-year-old philanthropist and widow to the late Jones Truck Lines founder Harvey Jones, died in 2003. She oversaw the Jones Family Trusts, which gave millions of dollars to colleges, hospitals, religious organizations and other socially minded causes in Arkansas. She was honored many times for her philanthropy and in 1996 was awarded the Presidential Citizen Medal by President Clinton. Jones was also an honorary member of the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century Steering Committee.

Harvey and Bernice Jones supported many organizations across the state, including Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Northwest Medical Center, the Jones Center for Families and the University of Arkansas.

This gift counts toward The $300 Million Challenge, the campaign-within-a-campaign. The purpose of the Challenge is to raise $300 million for academic purposes to match the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation’s $300 million gift. Challenge funds must be raised between Jan. 1, 2002, and June 30, 2005, the end of the Campaign. The Challenge total stands at $170.8 million, and the overall Campaign total stands at $800.5 million as of April 30, 2004.