In Memoriam: Robert A. Jones ’59
Robert A. Jones, 86, a former trustee and longtime Middlebury supporter who cofounded what is now known as the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, died in Highland Park, Illinois, on November 10, 2023. Jones was a member of the Middlebury College Class of 1959.
Born on March 15, 1937, in Evanston, Illinois, Jones attended North Country Day School, where he played football and baseball, and later graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in economics. He earned his MBA from Northwestern University in 1961.
An economist who pioneered online information services on the Telerate System, Jones was founder and chairman of Digital Integrator and founder and chairman of Market News International, a global financial news service headquartered in New York City. He also founded MMS International, a worldwide provider of economic and financial forecasts for the trading community.
Jones was passionate about supporting research and educational endeavors that furthered global cooperation and understanding. In 1987, the College tapped Jones and others to create the International Institute of Economic Advancement, for which he also served as a trustee. At a time of rapid growth in international programs at Middlebury, IIEA hosted conferences and supported publications around international economic and policy issues. The organization was later renamed the Geonomics Institute, and eventually evolved into the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.
In 2001, the Middlebury Board of Trustees officially designated the building known as the Geonomics House as the Robert A. Jones ’59 House, which is the current location of the Rohatyn Center.
Jones was elected to the Middlebury College Board of Trustees in 1998, serving for eight years, including membership on the Budget and Finance, College Advancement, and Technology Committees.
Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center, recalls Jones’s infectious energy for everything he did. “Alongside his vision and creativity, Bob’s altruistic, competitive spirit was remarkable,” said Tate. “During winter trips to Middlebury, Bob eagerly participated in an annual fundraising event to ski maximum vertical feet at the Snowbowl and enthusiastically encouraged others to join him in this exhausting challenge.”
Jones was an avid musician, singing with the College’s Dissipated Eight a cappella group as a student and playing guitar in a folk rock band in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s. He enjoyed the outdoors, in particular his family vacations to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, camping in the summers and skiing in the winters. In addition to his career in economics, Jones served in many public roles, most notably as councilman, and later mayor, of Belmont, California, in the 1970s.
Jones is survived by his four children with wife Kathleen Bush ’59, Lindsay ’82, Rob, Greg ’86, and Will; two stepchildren, Brian and Alan; 13 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his second wife, Ina Turner, and stepson Jonathan.
A private service was held at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Illinois, on November 14.