Fletcher Roseberry Jones (January 22, 1931November 7, 1972) was an American businessman,

computer pioneer This is a list of people who made transformative breakthroughs in the creation, development and imagining of what computers could do. Pioneers : ''To arrange the list by date or person (ascending or descending), click that column's small "up-do ...

and

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

racehorse Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

owner.

Early life and education

Born in

Bryan, Texas Bryan is a city and the county seat of Brazos County, Texas, United States. It is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley (East and Central Texas). As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 83,980. Bryan borders the city of College ...

, Jones was the third of three children of an impoverished

Depression era The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

family. He graduated from Allen Military Academy in 1949, then studied at university for two years, but did not graduate. His interest in mathematics led to jobs in the fledgling computer departments at aviation companies. Married in 1951, he was transferred to California by his employer, North American Aviation Corp. After time at the company's offices in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, Jones and his wife and two small children settled in Los Angeles where he managed a North American Aviation computer center.

Career

In 1959, Fletcher Jones went into business with

Roy Nutt Roy Nutt (October 20, 1930 – June 14, 1990) was an American businessman and computer pioneer. He was a co-creator of Fortran As corrected June 22, 1990. and co-founded Computer Sciences Corporation. Fortran Born in Marlborough, Massachuse ...

, a widely respected

computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

who had been working for United Aircraft Corp. The two founded a software services company named Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), when Jones, who ran the business and marketing end of things, obtained a contract from

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

that gave their business profitability and respect within the industry. In 1961, the company made a major move into the space industry when they obtained a contract to support

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

's Flight Operations Facility. Within four years of its founding, CSC became the largest software company in the United States. Taking their business public with an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

listed on the

American Stock Exchange NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was known ...

, Jones and Nutt had become multi-millionaires. By the end of the 1960s, CSC was listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

and had operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, (Germany), Italy, and in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Westerly Stud Farms

As a hobby business, Fletcher Jones became involved in the

breeding Breeding is sexual reproduction that produces offspring, usually animals or plants. It can only occur between a male and a female animal or plant. Breeding may refer to: * Animal husbandry, through selected specimens such as dogs, horses, and rab ...

and

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

of Thoroughbred horses. In 1966, he acquired a property near

Santa Ynez, California Santa Ynez (; Spanish for "St. Agnes") is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, California. The town of Santa Ynez is one of the communities of the Santa Ynez Valley. It features the Santa Ynez Airport ...

that he named Westerly Stud Farms. In addition to a large home, he built a U-shaped main barn, breeding sheds, and other service buildings, as well as a half-mile training track. In order to spend more time on his farm, Jones built an airstrip and piloted his own aircraft to and from the

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

airport near where his office was located. Westerly Stud Farms' best known horse was

Typecast In film, television, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ...

, a

filly A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare. There are two specific definitions in use: *In most cases, a ''filly'' is a female horse under four years old. *In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, t ...

who won the 1972

Eclipse Award The Eclipse Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th-century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. An Eclipse Award Trophy is presented to the winner in each division that is made by a few small selected American ...

as the

American Champion Older Female Horse The Eclipse Award for Champion Older Dirt Female Horse is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually to a filly or mare, four years old and up, for performances on dirt and main track racing surfaces. In 1971, it became part of the ...

. ;Selected stakes race wins for Westerly Stud Farms *

Frank E. Kilroe Mile The Frank E. Kilroe Mile is an American Thoroughbred horse race run in early March at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. Open to horses four years of age and older, it is raced over a distance of one mile (1.6 km). The Grade I race curre ...

– ''Fleet Host'' (1967) *

San Luis Rey Handicap The San Luis Rey Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. Held during the third week of March, the Grade III event is open to horses of either gender, age four and up, willing to race ...

– ''Fleet Host'' (1967) *

San Carlos Handicap The San Carlos Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race once held during the third week of February at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, but now run in March. The Grade II stakes race is open to horses, aged three and up, willing to rac ...

– ''Rising Market'' (1970) *

San Simeon Handicap The Daytona Stakes is a Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for horses three years old and older run over the distance of about furlongs on the downhill turf scheduled annually in late May at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. Hist ...

– ''Long Position'' (1971) *

Las Palmas Handicap The Goldikova Stakes is a Grade II American Thoroughbred horse race for fillies and mares age three years old or older over the distance of one mile on the turf scheduled annually in November at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, California. The event ...

– ''Typecast'' (1971) *

Del Mar Oaks The Del Mar Oaks is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in mid August at the Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. Open to three-year-old Filly, fillies, it is contested at a distance of one and one-eighth miles (9 furlongs) on th ...

– ''House of Cards'' (1972) *

Santa Monica Handicap The Santa Monica Stakes is an American Grade II Thoroughbred horse race run annually in late January/early February at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. Open to fillies and mares age four and older, it is run on the dirt over a distance of s ...

– ''Typecast'' (1972) *

Hollywood Invitational Turf Handicap The Charles Whittingham Stakes is a Grade II American Thoroughbred horse race for horses age three years old and older over a distance of miles on the turf held annually in late May at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, USA. The event cur ...

– ''Typecast'' (1972) *

Man o' War Stakes The Man o' War Stakes is a Grade I American thoroughbred horse race for horses aged four-years-old and older. It is run over a distance of one and three-eighth miles on turf and is scheduled annually for early May at Belmont Park in Elmont, New Y ...

– ''Typecast'' (1972) Fletcher Jones gave CSC employee

Martin J. Wygod Martin J. Wygod (born February 1, 1940) is an American businessman and a prominent Thoroughbred Horse racing, racehorse owner/breeder. Business career A business administration graduate from New York University, he joined a Wall Street brokerage f ...

his first two horses as a birthday gift. Wygod and his wife Pam have remained major owners of racing Thoroughbreds ever since. The Westerly Stud property was sold in an estate dispersal sale in 1973. Since then, its has been subdivided into a number of small parcels, including a section that became the

D. Wayne Lukas Darrell Wayne Lukas (born September 2, 1935 in Antigo, Wisconsin) is an American horse trainer and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. He has won twenty Breeders' Cup races, received five Eclipse Awards for his accomplishments, and his horses ha ...

Westerly training center. The home, with its outbuildings and paddocks, is now part of approximately and has changed hands several times.

Art collection

Fletcher Jones began purchasing art, particularly works by the French

Impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. He owned paintings by

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist ...

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

. As well, he acquired four Picassos, notably his 1901 self-portrait titled '' Yo, Picasso'' that was sold by Jones's estate and which, in 1989, would be purchased by the Greek shipping magnate,

Stavros Niarchos Stavros Spyrou Niarchos ( el, Σταύρος Σπύρου Νιάρχος, ; 3 July 1909 – 15 April 1996) was a Greek billionaire shipping tycoon. Starting in 1952, he had the world's biggest supertankers built for his fleet. Propelled by both ...

for US$47.85 million.

Death

On November 7, 1972, the forty-one-year-old Jones died when the plane he was piloting home crashed into a hillside. He is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in the

Santa Ynez Valley The Santa Ynez Valley is located in Santa Barbara County, California, between the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south and the San Rafael Mountains to the north. The Santa Ynez River flows through the valley from east to west. The Santa Ynez Valle ...

. Jones had divorced his wife in the early 1960s and his estate provided a trust fund for his two sons, Jeffery and Scott, but the bulk of his fortune went to his Fletcher Jones Foundation. Five months after Jones' death, actress

Sherry Jackson Sherry D. Jackson (born February 15, 1942) is an American retired actress and former child star. Early life Jackson was born in Wendell, Idaho, to Maurita (or Maurite) Kathleen Gilbert and Curtis Loys Jackson, Sr. on February 15, 1942, according ...

, who had lived with him from 1967 until his death, sued his estate for palimony. Jackson's suit asked for more than $1 million ($ million today), with her attorneys stating that Jones had promised to provide her with at least $25,000 a year for the rest of her life. Jones' art collection was liquidated by his estate as well as Westerly Stud Farms. Although he was never a philanthropist in life, his Foundation continues to operate and has made considerable donations, primarily to California colleges and universities. Current and former Fletcher Jones Professorships include: * Michael A. Arbib (Computer Science) at University of Southern California, Emeritus *

Mark Blitz Mark Blitz (born March 15, 1946) is an American political philosopher and Fletcher Jones Professor of Political Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in th ...

(Political Philosophy) at Claremont McKenna College * Tom Campbell (Law) at Chapman University School of Law * Satyan Devadoss (Computer Science) at University of San Diego *

Gerald Fuller Gerald Gendall Fuller (born April 7, 1953) is a Canadian/American chemical engineer and Fletcher Jones II Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. Fuller received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Calgary ...

(Chemical Engineering) at Stanford University *

Seymour Ginsburg Seymour Ginsburg (December 12, 1927 – December 5, 2004) was an American pioneer of automata theory, formal language theory, and database theory, in particular; and computer science, in general. His work was influential in distinguishing theor ...

(Computer Science) at University of Southern California * Ken Gonzales-Day (Art) at Scripps College *

Gene H. Golub Gene Howard Golub (February 29, 1932 – November 16, 2007), was an American numerical analysis, numerical analyst who taught at Stanford University as Fletcher R. Jones, Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science and held a courtesy appointmen ...

(Computer Science, Electrical Engineering) at Stanford University *

John Grotzinger John P. Grotzinger is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Geology at California Institute of Technology and chair of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. His works primarily focus on chemical and physical interactions between life and ...

(Geology) at California Institute of Technology *

Menas Kafatos Menas C. Kafatos ( el, Μηνάς Καφάτος; born 25 March 1945) is a Greek-born American physicist and a writer on spirituality and science. His publications include: ''The Nonlocal Universe'' and ''The Conscious Universe''. Kafatos has writ ...

(Computational Physics) at Chapman University *

Donald E. Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer sc ...

(Computer Science) at Stanford University, Emeritus * Rubén Martínez (Literature & Writing) at Loyola Marymount University * Susan Rankaitis (Studio Art) at Scripps College *

Greg Sarris Gregory Michael Sarris (born February 12, 1952) is the Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (since 1992), the Graton Rancheria Endowed Chair in Creative Writing and Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, where he t ...

(Creative Writing and Literature) at Loyola Marymount University * Kevin Sharpe (History) at the Huntington Library * Gary Smith (Economics) at Pomona College *

Ivan Sutherland Ivan Edward Sutherland (born May 16, 1938) is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, widely regarded as a pioneer of computer graphics. His early work in computer graphics as well as his teaching with David C. Evans in that subje ...

(Computer Science) at California Institute of Technology *

Marcos Villatoro Marcos McPeek Villatoro is a writer from the United States. He is the author of six novels, two collections of poetry and a memoir, and the producer/director of the documentary "Tamale Road: A Memoir from El Salvador." He has written essays for Nat ...

(Creative Writing) at Mount St. Mary's University, Los Angeles *

Jennifer Widom Jennifer Widom is an American computer scientist known for her work in database systems and data management. She is notable for foundational contributions to semi-structured data management and data stream management systems. Since 2017, Widom ...

(Computer Science) at Stanford University

References

External links

The Fletcher Jones Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Fletcher R. 1931 births 1972 deaths American computer businesspeople Businesspeople in software American racehorse owners and breeders American art collectors Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States People from Bryan, Texas Accidental deaths in California 20th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Texas Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1972