John Elmer Jones

John Elmer Jones of Peoria, Ariz., formerly of Boise, Elkhorn and Moses Lake, born Dec. 7, 1917, in Kellogg, Idaho to John E. and Lydia Jones passed away on Oct. 29, 2006, at home in Peoria. John was the youngest of three children. He graduated from Kellogg High School and went to the University of Idaho, where he studied accounting and lived at Beta Theta Pi fraternity house until World War II. He served as Captain in the Army Air Corps as a financial officer in Italy. After the war, he taught accounting at the University of Idaho where he met and married Ruth Marie Curtis of Boise in 1945. They moved to Salt Lake City where John was employed by a regional CPA firm. Their first child, Tom, was born while they were in Salt Lake City. John was transferred to Boise to manage the firm's Boise office in 1950 where their second child, David was born.

At the beckoning of Jack Morris, a friend from the U of I, John was a founding partner in the firm of Morris, Jones & Palmer, CPA's with offices in Ephrata and Moses Lake in 1953. Their only daughter, Anne, was born in Ephrata shortly thereafter. John opened the Moses Lake office in 1954 where their youngest child Tim was born. John eventually became mayor of Moses Lake and as such was largely responsible for the arrangement with Japan airlines for the use of the Larson Air Force Base as a training facility for pilots. In his capacity as mayor, John and Ruth were given a trip to Japan starting their thirst for world travel. In Moses Lake, he was very active in Rotary and ascended to District Governor of the Northwest District.

In 1976, he retired from the firm and he and Ruth moved to Elkhorn at Sun Valley in Idaho, where he served on the city council and was active in Rotary. They relocated to Boise in 1986 where they joined Hillcrest Country Club and John was again active in Rotary. In 1994 John and Ruth moved to Sun City, Ariz. where they joined Palmbrook Country Club and John enjoyed golf and made many friends. Ruth passed away in 1995. John met Martha Christensen and they married in 1998. They remained in Sun CIty/Peoria, Ariz. John continued to be active and he and Martha played golf regularly, with John "shooting his age" quite often. He was an extremely intelligent man with a quick wit. He was very kind and considerate of everyone and will be greatly missed his family and "everyone who was still speaking to him" (his quote).

He is survived by his wife Martha; children, Tom and Cindy Jones of Gooding, David and Carla Jones of Moscow, Rob and Anne Jones Johnson of Nampa and Tim and Kristin Jones of Palouse, 11 grandchildren and two great-granddaughters. Donations may be sent to Rotary foundation courtesy of your local Rotary club.