James F. Jones, Jr., is the 21st president of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Jones is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He and his wife, Jan, have three children.
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Jones graduated from Woodward Academy in his hometown Atlanta. Jones holds Master's and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, a Master's degree from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia, from which he graduated cum laude; while at Virginia he was assistant director of the Virginia Glee Club.[1] He also holds a Certificat from the Sorbonne. He has received the Chevalier, Ordre des Palmes Académiques from the French government. In addition to official duties, he also maintains trusteeships and board memberships on a number of philanthropic and educational organizations.[2]
Before his presidency at Trinity, Jones served as president of Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 1996 to 2004. There, he presided over the most successful strategic planning and fundraising drive in the college's history.[3][4] From 1991 to 1996, he was Professor and Vice Provost at Southern Methodist University, as well as dean of its Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. From 1975 to 1991, Jones held various academic positions at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, including professor and chair in the department of Romance languages. Earlier, he served as preceptor in the Department of French and Romance Philology at Columbia University, and was chair of the Department of Foreign Languages at Woodward Academy in Atlanta.
Since his appointment as Trinity's 21st president on July 21, 2004, Jones launched the Cornerstone project, a comprehensive College-wide planning effort that reaffirmed Trinity's commitment to its students and to global engagement alike. He also has made many changes regarding the college's administration. His efforts have already elicited a college-record 56% participation in donations from alumni. Despite his busy schedule, Jones still manages to teach at least one course each year. He is also frequently seen on campus walking his three Irish setters, Atticus, Colleen, and Ashlyn.[2]
Jones' publications include Rousseau's Dialogues: An Interpretive Essay, The Story of a Fair Greek of Yesteryear (a translation into English of L'Histoire d'une Grecque Moderne by Antoine-François Prévost), and La Nouvelle Héloïse: Rousseau and Utopia. He has also written dozens of scholarly articles, most of them on the topic of Jean Jacques Rousseau.[2]