Benjamin Rowland Jones, Jr. (May 29, 1906 – July 24, 1980) was a justice of the

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...

from 1957 to 1972 and chief justice from 1972 to 1977.

Biography

Benjamin R. Jones was born on May 29, 1906, in

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the seco ...

. He studied at

Wyoming Seminary , motto_translation = Truth, beauty, and goodness , address = 201 North Sprague Avenue , location = , region = , city = Kingston , county = Luzerne , st ...

, where he served as class president, before attending

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

, graduating in 1927, and the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

. While at Princeton, Jones participated in debating and managed the freshman and varsity

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

teams. Following law school, Jones served in the

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county ...

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...

's office before serving in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

during World War II. In January 1957, Jones joined the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as an associate justice. He served as an associate justice until his ascension to chief justice in 1972. He retired from the court in 1977. He died on July 24, 1980. Jones had two sons with his first wife, who both attended Princeton and became attorneys. His first wife died in 1953 and he remarried, to Jane Griffith, who had a son of her own. Jones served as president of the United Fund and trustee of Wyoming Seminary and his church, a Welsh church of the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

denomination.

References

1906 births 1980 deaths Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania lawyers Princeton University alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers {{Pennsylvania-state-judge-stub