Joseph A. Jones

Obituary

Joseph Alphonso Jones was the third child and the second born son of marriage union of Joseph Nathaniel Jones and Sarah Ann Graves who hailed from the Island of Barbados during the USA construction of the Panama Canal. Joseph was born March 24, 1918 in Gorgas Hospital, Panama Canal Zone, Republic of Panama. He resided and grew up in the Canal Zone town site known as La Boca with his parents, two brothers and two sisters. He attended the La Boca schools and graduated with high honors and achieved credentials as a teacher, specializing in wood shop (carpentry) as the nomenclature for said trade was known at that time. Upon graduation in 1936 he began his working career in the La Boca occupational High School where he taught the rudiments of the carpentry trade, including proper use and maintenance of the tools of the trade. He was an avid basketball player and was a member of many traveling teams that represented Panama throughout Central America and Latin America.

After several years of living, teaching and voraciously exploring the Isthmus of Panama, Joseph resigned his position in 1947 and emigrated to the United states of America in pursuit of a degree in mathematics at Hampton University, Hampton Virginia. He departed Hampton University after a few years if struggling to pay his tuition and board. He found work as a senior carpenter in the state of Ohio with a contractor who was constructing houses. When the work in Ohio came to a standstill in the early 1950s, Joseph relocated to Brooklyn, New York where he found employment in the Brooklyn Navy Yard repairing many of the Navy ships that had transited the Panama Canal while at the same time continuing his pursuit of a higher education by attending Brooklyn College and Long Island University earning a degree in mathematics. Joseph was one of the many workman who survived the huge disastrous Navy Yard fire in 1962. After that tremendously negative experience, he sought and gained employment as a Building Inspector in the Buildings Department City of New York where he attained the Inspector Gold Shield rank and retired from the NYC Buildings Department in 1989.

Joesph and his wife Irene relocated from Brooklyn, New York to Amityville, New York where he resided and participated in the civic activities of his community and the Town of Babylon. He was the president of civic association for many years. On his 100th birthday celebration March 2018 with family and friends the Town of Babylon presented him a proclamation of appreciation and acknowledgment of his many contributions to the life and people of the Hamlet of Amityville and the Town of Babylon.

On Tuesday, January 2, 2019, Joseph Alphonso Jones, after his long journey, was called home and departed this life to be with his maker, he will truly be missed.

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