James Richard Jones ’40

Dick, later known as “Digger,” died Nov. 15, 2006, from pneumonia complicated by post-polio syndrome. He had contracted polio at age 16.

A graduate of the Kingsley School in Essex Fells, N.J., he majored in geology at Princeton, achieving second-group departmental honors.

He was a member of the freshman track team, 150-pound football team, and Theatre Intime, and was an IAA basketball official, serving as head official his senior year. He earned a master’s in geology from Syracuse University in 1948.

Digger was a member of the Army Corps of Engineers from 1941 to 1945. He was a survivor of Pearl Harbor and served in eight campaigns in the Asiatic-Pacific and European theaters, winning a Purple Heart and eventually retiring from the reserves as a major.

He joined the U.S. Geological Survey in 1948, becoming a district geologist and groundwater authority. He lived in various foreign countries with his family while assisting those governments in the development of their water resources.

Digger maintained his ties with Princeton, updating his class on his family, career, and activities those many years, then retiring to Arizona.

His classmates offer their sincere sympathies to his wife of 58 years, the former Suzanne Ludeking; their daughters, Lucinda, Sara Jones Ferguson, and Elizabeth; two grandsons; and two goddaughters.