Page 110 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Alden H. Jones

1975-1976

Most Worshipful Brother Alden H. Jones was born December 5,
1907, in the small Town of Winona, located in the foothills of the
Ozark Mountains of Missouri. There, as a small boy, he learned an
early and happy appreciation of Nature. Memories of his boyhood
take him back to polliwog ponds, tracking foxes and rabbits in winter
snow, searching for Indian artifacts and stone paintings in the forest,
skating three miles to school on ice-encrusted snow—and digging
roots for the healthy but awful-tasting sassafras tea.

Life on a small farm with its many chores —herding cattle, repairing fences, planting and
harvesting gardens —all taught young Alden Jones an early acceptance of the necessity of work.
Both work and play were happily balanced with an early appreciation and enthusiasm for school
and learning, which became a pattern of life.

After twelve years in Winona, the family moved to Snoqualmie Falls, where a daughter was born
and the father, Jack Jones, worked for Weyerhaeuser as an accountant. Nine years later the family
moved to Longview, where Weyerhaeuser had built a new sawmill. The father and all three sons
completed working careers for Weyerhaeuser Company.

After high school Alden attended technical school and learned to fly. He became a partner in a
charter flight business. In 1927, at the age of 19, he survived an airplane crash and gave up flying.
Alden returned to Longview and joined a survey crew for the Weyerhaeuser Company. Thereafter,
promotions came as Chief of Survey, Logging Engineer, Chief Engineer, and Logging Manager.
Finally, in 1965, he was assigned to Weyerhaeuser International Headquarters where he served as
Resource Development Manager until his retirement in 1973. He spent forty-seven years with the
company. Alden was commissioned to write a history of the company; entitled "From Jamestown
to Coffin Rock," it covered the period from 1900 to 1964. Eight hundred sixty-three people were
mentioned.

Alden H. Jones found his life partner, Dora Smith, on Smith Road at Toutle, Washington, and it
was a notable event, indeed, when "one of the Jones boys married one of the Smith girls" in 1934.
From the Smith Road at Toutle to the Jones Road at Kelso, they cherished, supported, and
complemented each other in a faithful and enduring marriage. Dora's poor health in later years
consumed Alden's devoted attention.