Jones, David R. Richard, 1995 November 07

The following is an Living History Interview with David R. Jones at his office in Atlanta, Georgia, conducted by Marilyn J. Somers on November 11, 1995. The subject of this interview is student life at Georgia Tech. Mr. Jones begins by stating that his father was also a graduate of Georgia Tech, a co-op student in Electrical Engineering of the early 1930s. He remembers attending Georgia Tech football games during the 1940s before his father was transferred to Augusta, Georgia. In Augusta, Mr. Jones attended Richmond Academy, where he learned chemistry from Prof. Frank Lambert, who taught chemistry like it was taught at Georgia Tech. Mr. Jones already knew that he wanted to attend Tech by this point. He entered Tech in the Fall of 1955, living first in Towers and later in Harris Residence Halls. He began in EE, but graduated in Industrial Management after realizing that EE was not for him. He says that the Interstate Highway System had just been built at this time and Tech students would stand on the bridge on North Avenue over the highway and watch the cars coming down the highway and try to be the first to be able to identify the oncoming vehicle. He tells that his classes were indeed challenging, even for a student with such a solid background from Richmond Academy. He remembers hearing the famous "Look to your left, look to your right..." speech. He speaks specifically about Colonel Bliss, a drafting professor who loved football players. In the mid 1950s, Mr. Jones says, Georgia Tech football was the social event in Atlanta on Saturday afternoons. He talks extensively about the 1955 Sugarbowl controversy, in which the governor of Georgia forbid Tech to play against Pittsburgh due to the presence of a black player on Pittsburgh's team. Mr. Jones describes the demonstration held by the Tech student body and the following march to the capitol and then to the governor's mansion. He states that the general public supported the Tech students' cause, but the Tech administration wanted to accomplish the goal through negotiation. Mr Jones lived in an apartment for his second year at Tech and moved into the Delta Upsilon house for his third and fourth years. He was a charter member of Delta Upsilon, and became the President for his senior year, during which he learned many lessons about leadership. He recalls once being chewed out by Dean Griffin for a wild party held by Kappa Alpha. Dean Griffin ended up putting both Mr. Jones and the President of KA on academic warning, since neither fraternity would admit to having the party. He remembers seeing Dean Griffin at later Alumni functions and that Dean Griffin always wanted to play golf. Mr. Jones says that DU would get a washtub of grain alcohol made by some chemistry majors and mix it with wine for drinking at their parties. He says they met girls from Agnes Scott and the nursing programs in Atlanta. Social activities, for which the main mode of transportation was walking, included fraternity dances, movies, the Varsity, the Yellow Jacket - a restaurant located across from the present location of Coca-Cola, and on Sundays, lunch after church at the Pickrick restaurant, owned and run by Lester Maddox and his family. Mr. Jones also remembers the first Elvis Presley concert in Atlanta, at which time he had not heard of Elvis Presley, but attended the concert because everyone else was. He describes that the first television available to the student body was the one in the YMCA until the fraternities began getting them. He reminisces about Freshmen traditions such as rat caps and shirttail parades. After his degree, Mr. Jones went into a Corps of Engineers reserve unit. Then he went back to Georgia Tech's Placement Office, where Dean Ajax advised him to contact Ralph Hendrix at Atlanta Gas Light Company. They had two openings, one in Rome, and one in Augusta. Mr. Jones took the Augusta job in August of 1960 as a Junior Engineer. He was transferred from Augusta to Gainesville, Griffin, Macon, and then Atlanta, and he was in the Tech Alumni clubs in all of those cities. In 1985 he became president of Atlanta Gas Light Company. He met his wife, Sybil, in Augusta and they have two daughters. Mr. Jones summarizes by saying that the Tech discipline and focus prepared him very well for life and that he still tries to recruit students for Tech.