Sept. 29, 2006 — Ronnie Jones is making a name for himself in St. John activist circles as the president of the V.I. Unity Day Group, which organized Sundays Unity Day event in Cruz Bay Park.
I have committed myself to being a community activist and will use all public and political avenues toward the betterment of the Virgin Islands, he said.
Jones, 47, said he sees that all residents, no matter what their color, need to pull together for the common good.
We all have to be more sensitive and caring to each other, he said.
Jones had toyed with the idea of running for Senate this year, but said he now plans to seek a seat in 2008.
While his work in the community consumes much of his free time, by day Jones works as Caneel Bay Resorts credit manager. The job involves keeping track of the money owed the resort by guests and people using its facilities.
Jones had to work his way through school, spending eight years earning a degree in accounting and communications from Herbert H. Lehman College in the Bronx. He started his educational career at Julius E. Sprauve School on St. John, but went off to St. Thomas for the rest of his education. He graduated from Ivanna Eudora Kean High School in 1977.
After moving back to St. John, Jones worked with his cousin, Iva Moses, taking care of the family property in Susannaberg. Jones worked for his grandfather, Halvor Neptune Richards, the owner.
He worked me very hard, Jones recalled. In those days, he said, materials like cement were moved by hand from St. Thomas. In retrospect, Jones said, he didnt mind the work because hes an heir to extensive acreage that contains plantation-era ruins.
After a year of hard labor, Jones signed on for a position with the governments Youth Development Program. When federal funding cuts put an end to that position, he hopped islands some more. He moved to St. Thomas to work with the Commission on Youth, then returned to St. John after more than a year to serve as field supervisor for the Youth Development Program.
By then Jones was ready for college. He left to stay with an aunt in the Bronx, New York, where he first attended Queensborough Community College before moving on to Lehman. While attending college, Jones worked with mentally handicapped people at a Bronx hospital.
Around that time his grandmother, Florence Richards, told Jones a story about his absentee father. She intercepted letters his father sent to his mother, Janet, shortly after Jones was born. His mother died when he was 15, and Jones didn't know much about his father.
My grandmother told me to go find my father, Jones recalled.
He had little to go on, but knew the two met while his mother was working in Puerto Rico. His father served in the U.S. Air Force. Jones said he managed to convince a worker at the Vital Statistics Bureau to turn over information about his father listed on maternity papers. That enabled him to trace his father, Earl S. Jones, to Missouri.
The two reconnected, and Jones spent eight years living near his father while he studied to be a financial planner and worked in law enforcement. After his father died in 2002, Jones began making plans to return to St. John. He moved in 2004 with his wife, Janice, and their two children, Nkosi, 12, and Ngozi, 10.
He first worked as the special-education teacher at his alma mater, Sprauve School, before signing on with Caneel Bay Resort a year ago.
Im so glad to be home, he said as he posed for a photo at Caneel.
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