LEGACY
PFC Philip Jones at the Army Information School
Dorothy Huffington, high school student newspaper editor, at work after school checking the galleys at the Normal, Illinois daily newspaper. “The Normalite”—what a name!. Imagine going to “Normal High School,.”
Philip R. & Dorothy H. Jones
Valerie was born into a family steeped in media and education. Philip Jones was stationed at Fort Slocum, NY as an Army private studying journalism and photography at the Armed Forces Information School, now the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, MD. Following the Army, he worked in print and broadcast media before becoming an educator. His wife Dorothy Huffington Jones was a student newspaper and yearbook editor.
Phil encouraged Valerie to write, write write! He was her editor and patiently gave her photography lessons with the newest models of home movie cameras and projectors. When it came time to intern at the local newspaper, he was Valerie’s personal copy editor and later, her biggest cheerleader in questioning school system and local government authority in the school newspaper. The “Jones homes” had copies of the Constitution proudly displayed. Phil would point to it, saying “make sure you know the First Amendment, I think you’re going to need it.” From undergraduate study to teaching authority-questioning students at Virginia Tech to now, Phil Jones was right.
After working in newspapers, Phil became a fierce advocate for children with special needs, first as a teacher then as a school system administrator. To counteract the misinformed and misguided sentiment about “the handicapped” as the children were called at the time, he created and hosted the weekly program “Special Me” on the University of Illinois PBS station which was subsequently distributed to stations across the country.
On the air for several years, “Special Me” topics ranged from the practical aspects of creating enriching educational opportunities in the schools for special needs children, requiring schools to include parents in the formation of individual education plans (IEPs) to legislative initiatives and for the time, most critical, the moral imperative to mainstream children into neighborhood schools. His efforts were key to Congress passing the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, Public Law 94-142, in 1975. He was in the Oval Office of the White House with President Gerald Ford as the bill was signed into law and brought Valerie the pen from the signing.
In Valerie’s career, a particularly gratifying experience following the family tradition was joining the full-time faculty at Virginia Tech teaching media courses for six years.