Don Jones and sports have always been, as Drew's former President Thomas H. Kean might have said, "Perfect Together."
Not that athletics have been his only concern. Drew's professor emeritus of social ethics, and 1995 recipient of the President's Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award, has had a full career that includes military service, ministry, and business consulting. But his abiding interests in sports and in teaching student athletes have formed a bond between Don and his students that is one of his great joys. Former students, both athletes and non-athletes, established the Donald G. Jones Scholarship upon his retirement to celebrate these close relationships.
Don was educated at South Dakota State College and Augustana College (B.A. 1957), served in the U.S. Navy, and received the M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees from Drew. An ordained United Methodist clergyman, he began teaching at Drew in 1966 following several years in the ministry that later made him known to the public as Hillary Clinton's youth minister. But his studies at Drew during the civil rights and Cold War years sparked a lasting interest in ethics that has developed throughout his life. He is widely recognized as one of the co-founders of the field of business ethics, and his explorations of ethics in relation to medicine, business, sports, society, and religion have taken him around the world as consultant and visiting scholar.
As absorbing as teaching and consulting have been, Don has never neglected athletics. He lettered in three sports in high school, played football in college, and has been interested and involved in Drew sports for over 40 years. He has chaired the Athletic Council, and for 20 years was Drew's faculty representative to the NCAA. A faithful Ranger fan, he has attended many games in all sports over many years and has always been close to Drew's coaches. His increasing interest in the relationship between his academic study of ethics and the practical ethics of sports resulted in a bibliography, Sports and Ethics in America (with Elaine Daly), published by Greenwood Press in 1992, and numerous articles and lectures on the ethics of sports and coaching.
Don's academic study of sports inspired him to create one of the nation's first courses in sports ethics. "Ethics and the Sociology of Sports" was attended and enjoyed by many Drew students and student-athletes over the years. He remains a great fan of college and professional sports, an enthusiast whose interest has formed an important part of his life in general and at Drew. We are fortunate that Don, one of Drew's legendary professors, has not only been intensely interested in the University's athletic life, but has contributed so generously to the moral and ethical explorations central to a liberal arts education.
