Shelley and Tom Jones chosen as de Tocqueville Society family of the year

Shelley and Tom Jones, longtime educators and service-minded community members, have been selected as the Alexis de Tocqueville Society of United Way of West Alabama's family of the year.

Tom was elected posthumously, having died in 2017. Shelley Jones will receive the honor at the society's spring luncheon Tuesday, at the home of Mary Virginia and Bill Best.

Each year, the society's leadership makes nominations, then passes those to a selection committee to make the choice.

"It's always a tough decision," said Jackie Wuska, president and CEO of the United Way of West Alabama, which for more than 75 years has helped raise funds for more than two dozen area service organizations, "because there are so many worthy possibilities."

Both Joneses were longtime forces in education, Shelley as first a teacher, then as principal of Woodland Forrest Elementary for 20 years, and Tom as a professor and later dean at the University of Alabama School of Law. Both worked tirelessly for dozens of service groups and organizations.

"Everybody in our community recognizes their talents, their generous spirit and vision," Wuska said, "so they've been asked to serve with every non-profit in town. They've both made a strong difference in our community, for many years."

Shelley Jones shouldered the task as United Way campaign chair for 2020, just as the pandemic's effects were beginning to hammer the economy, a position she occupied with "grace and empathy," Wuska said. Though personal finances suffered as much if not more than did commercial entities, still Jones led the campaign to raise more than $4 million, combined with another $400,000 in COVID-19 relief efforts, making the largest-ever single-year numbers for the United Way of West Alabama.

"People who had never given before donated because of Shelley Jones," Wuska said.

Though month-to-month numbers lagged, probably because of economic insecurity, Jones pushed to find new donors to bridge the gaps. In an interview with The Tuscaloosa News late in 2020, she spoke of how spirits remained strong through hard times, as even those suffering gave to help others. She had heard a call to the United Way of West Alabama's 211 line from a donor, who, after struggling through four months of deprivation, was short $95 to pay his car insurance.

"Only $95," Jones said, in that December interview. "Of course, we were able to do that for him. Those are the kinds of things that have motivated me."

It's somewhat rare for the society to select posthumous recipients, Wuska said, though it did happen in 2020, with Tommy Hester and his late wife, Mary Hester.

"We all have such great memories and thoughts about Tom (Jones)," she said. "We'll miss him, but we know his spirit with be with us."

His career spanned decades at UA, serving the School of Law since 1962, working up the ranks from professor, through various roles in administration, and to professor emeritus. Jones represented Alabama on the Uniform Probate Laws Commission for 50 years, and wrote the definitive “will manual” that Alabama attorneys use still today.

Shelley began her education career teaching at Northington Elementary before being picked to lead then-new Woodland Forrest Elementary, designed as an innovative school with cutting-edge approaches to learning. During her tenure, the school won numerous awards, created its first Adopt-A-School partnership with First National Bank, and built a drama program that evolved into Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre. On retiring as principal in 1994, she became the first woman appointed to the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education, where she served for eight years.

Both of them served with time and leadership for organizations including but not limited to Alabama Credit Union, First Presbyterian Church, Greater Tuscaloosa Kiwanis Club, Salvation Army, Community Foundation of West Alabama, the DCH Foundation, Elevate Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa Bicentennial Committee, Tuscaloosa Education Foundation, UA College of Education, and of course, the United Way.

“For both Tom and me, being a good citizen helped us both grow in Tuscaloosa and get to meet and work with so many people who our lives may not have crossed with before," Shelley Jones said, in a written release.

"We have been a part of Tuscaloosa for more than 60 years now and could never have foreseen all of the blessings we’ve received.”

The national Alexis de Tocqueville Society was incorporated in Virginia 30 years ago, named for the French diplomat, historian and philosopher. After traveling throughout the United States, he wrote in admiration about a volunteer spirit in the new country.

He's best remembered for the two-volume work "De La Démocratie en Amérique," which translates to "On Democracy in America," though English-language translations usually call it just "Democracy in America."

In book two, he noted that Americans form associations, rather than rely on governments to head all community efforts: "... I have often admired the extreme skill they show in proposing a common object for the exertions of very many, and in inducing them voluntarily to pursue it."

For more information, see www.uwwa.org/tocqueville.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Shelley and Tom Jones chosen as de Tocqueville Society family of the year