Fay and Gus Jones Endowments Benefit From Daughter's Campaign Gift

Photo courtesy of University Libraries

Gus and Fay Jones in a photo from the Fay Jones Collection in the University Libraries.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – University of Arkansas alumna Jean Cameron “Cami” Jones, youngest daughter of Fay and Gus Jones, has committed a planned gift of more than $1 million to benefit the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design and University Libraries. Jones’s gift will count toward Campaign Arkansas, the university’s $1.25 billion capital campaign aimed at advancing academic opportunity at the U of A.

Jones, who lives in Austin, earned a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Master of Education, both with an emphasis in elementary education, from the College of Education and Health Professions at the U of A. She is retired from the Texas Education Agency, where she was the director of early childhood education.

Fifty percent of Jones’s gift will provide funding for the Fay and Gus Jones House Stewardship Endowment, an existing endowment in the Fay Jones School that supports the restoration, maintenance and preservation of the Fay and Gus Jones House.

The remaining 50 percent will be used to create two new endowments. The first, the Fay Jones Distinguished Visitor Endowment, will attract and appoint a Fay Jones Distinguished Visiting Professor and/or a Fay Jones Distinguished Lecturer annually. The visiting professor will be of national or international accomplishment in either architecture practice or education, and the lecturer will be chosen from the recognized list of AIA Gold Medalists or Pritzker Prize winners.

“The Fay Jones School is blessed three times over by the legacy of our namesake alumnus,” said Dean Peter MacKeith. “First by the gift of the Fay and Gus Jones House by the Jones’ daughters, and now by the generosity and vision of Cami Jones’ planned gift to the stewardship of the home and to the continuing quality of our public programs.”

The second new endowment, the Fay and Gus Jones Endowment in Special Collections, will fund the digitization of selected pieces of the collection of Fay Jones, including papers, photographs and other documents, currently housed as part of the Special Collections Department at the U of A. The fund will also support the stewardship, scholarly and educational use of the collection, which includes processing and preservation efforts.

“We are deeply grateful to Cami Jones for her generous gift,” said Carolyn Henderson Allen, dean of Libraries. “Researchers worldwide will benefit from the Fay Jones Digital Collection.”

Cami Jones is a life member of the Arkansas Alumni Association and included in the Towers of Old Main, a giving society for the university’s most generous benefactors. She is also counted as a Thoroughred for her 10 years of consecutive giving to the U of A.

About Campaign Arkansas: Campaign Arkansas is the ongoing capital campaign for the University of Arkansas to raise private gift support for the university’s academic mission and other key priorities. The campaign’s goal is to raise $1.25 billion to support academic and need-based scholarships, technology enhancements, new and renovated facilities, undergraduate, graduate and faculty research, study abroad opportunities and other innovative programs. The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in a wide spectrum of disciplines as it works to fulfill its public land-grant mission to serve Arkansas and beyond as a partner, resource and catalyst.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.