Fletcher R. Jones

Born in Bryan, Texas, Jones was the third of three children of an impoverished Depression era 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, Jones and his wife and two small children settled in Los Angeles where he managed a North American Aviation computer center.

In 1959, Fletcher Jones went into business with Roy Nutt, a computer programmer who had been working for United Aircraft Corp. The two founded the software services company Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), when Jones, who ran the business and marketing end of things, obtained a contract from Honeywell. In 1961, the company moved into the space industry when they obtained a contract to support NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory'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 listed on the American Stock Exchange, Jones and Nutt became multi-millionaires. By the end of the 1960s, CSC was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and had operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, (Germany), Italy, and in the Netherlands.

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.

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, who had lived with him from 1967 until his death, sued his estate for palimony. Jackson's suit asked for more than $1 million ($7.3 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. The Fletcher Jones Foundation continues to operate and donates primarily to California colleges and universities. Fletcher Jones Professorships have included::

Michael A. Arbib (Computer Science) at University of Southern California, Emeritus

Mark Blitz (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 (Chemical Engineering) at Stanford University

Seymour Ginsburg (Computer Science) at University of Southern California

Ken Gonzales-Day (Art) at Scripps College

Gene H. Golub (Computer Science, Electrical Engineering) at Stanford University

John Grotzinger (Geology) at California Institute of Technology

Menas Kafatos (Computational Physics) at Chapman University

Donald E. Knuth (Computer Science) at Stanford University, Emeritus

Rubén Martínez (Literature & Writing) at Loyola Marymount University

Susan Rankaitis (Studio Art) at Scripps College

Greg Sarris (Creative Writing and Literature) at Loyola Marymount University

Kevin Sharpe (History) at the Huntington Library

Gary Smith (Economics) at Pomona College

Ivan Sutherland (Computer Science) at California Institute of Technology

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

Jennifer Widom (Computer Science) at Stanford University

Rotating faculty in the social sciences at Mills College

The University of California, Merced also awards a Fletcher Jones fellowship to graduate students, based on funds from the foundation.