Richard H. Jones

Richard H. “Dick” Jones, 66, of Stevensville, passed away Tuesday, January 3, 2006, at Lakeland Hospital in St. Joseph, MI after a long battle with heart and lung disease.A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 11:00 A.M., on Monday, January 9, 2006, at Fairplain Presbyterian Church, 210 W. Napier Avenue, Benton Harbor, MI, with Rev. Dr. John Munson officiating. Friends may visit with the family from 6:30 to 8:30 P.M., on Sunday, January 8, 2006, at the church. In lieu of flowers, Dick and his family request memorial donations be made to Community Food Pantry at Fairplain Presbyterian Church, Fairplain Presbyterian Church, or Alano House of Southwest Michigan. Dick was born on June 16, 1939, to Herschel and Marjorie (Walraven) Jones in Kellerton, Iowa. In 1961, he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Nebraska. He was a star athlete in both high school and college in track & field, football and basketball. He held several Nebraska state track records for many years. Dick married Sharon Drew on February 11, 1959, in West Point, Nebraska. He retired from Whirlpool Corporation in 1997. After retirement he worked as a groundskeeper at Lake Michigan Golf Club until 1999. He loved the outdoor work and considered it the best job he ever had. He was a member of Fairplain Presbyterian Church and was very active with The Community Food Pantry located within the church. He served regularly at the Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen and was know as The Candy Man. He enjoyed golfing with his three “seeing eye” golf buddies every summer, and was never seen in the winter without a University of Nebraska sweatshirt. Before a stroke sidelined him, he was a member of the Southwest Michigan Car Collectors Club, going to shows in his Thunderbird Blue ’55 T-bird, a car he had coveted since his college days. He and Sharon also volunteered together at the Lakeland Hospital gift shop. Dick is survived by his wife Sharon; daughters, Deborah (Jim) Fagras of St. Joseph, and Vicky Dunham of Stevensville; grandchildren, Josh and Sarah Fagras of St. Joseph; step-grandchildren, Shawna Dunham of Peck, Kansas, and Angela Dunham of Bay City, Michigan; sisters, Virginia (Orville) Crom, and Patty Saatmann both of Kenesaw, Nebraska; one brother, Bob (Rita) Jones of Wheeling, West Virginia; and several aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews. Dick was preceded in death by his parents.