Résumé

Jones joined the US Army in 1942 and worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Burma and China, c. 1945. Principal, Robert W. Jones, Surveyor; Partner, Jones, [Jacob] Bassi and Associates, Surveyors, Mercer Island, WA, 1948-1987. Jones and Bassi knew each other at the University of Washington's School of Forestry.

According to his step-daughter, Noreen Jacky, Jones and Bassi obtained a great deal of surveying work from architects who also lived in the Bellevue Hilltop tract, including Perry Johanson, John Morse, Fred Bassetti, and Wendell Lovett.

Professional Service

President, Land Surveyors' Association of Washington.

High School/College

Graduate, Lincoln High School, Seattle, WA; B.S. Forestry, University of Washington, Seattle, c. 1940;

Relocation

Born in Seattle, Jones lived his life in his native city, attending Lincoln High School and the University of Washington. He remained in Seattle save for time spent abroad in Asia during World War II. After the war, he and his first wife lived in the Bellevue cooperative housing tract, Hilltop. His ex-wife, Dorothy Hall-Bauer, continued to own this Hilltop House until 1983.

He died of a stroke at age 86.

Parents

A sister, Margaret Whittlesey, survived him.

Spouse

He married Dorothy Hall Jones with whom he had four children; they lived in the Hilltop housing development in Bellevue, WA, from its beginning. They divorced prior to 1966.

He married Gerd Korsnes Jones (b. 10/20/1928) in 08/1966. the developer Alan Black was his best man. Gerd had three daughters by a previous marriage to Norman Buschmann.

Children

By his first wife, Jones had four children: Robert Jones, Sylvia Jones Smith, William Jones, and Laurie Jones. He also raised three step-daughters: Noreen Jacky, Ingrid Buschmann and Carol Buschmann.

Biographical Notes

The Jones-Korsnes blended family lived in the Island Point section of Mercer Island, an area that he surveyed originally. Jones surveyed the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort and the Hilltop Community, Bellevue, WA, among other notable projects. Jones loved the outdoors, hiking, skiing and playing golf; a mountaineer, he climbed both Mount Rainier and Mount Adams in WA. He was good friends with another outdoorsman, Theo Caldwell, a development partner of Alan Black.