He was born on June 20, 1922 in Mt. Holly, North Carolina, to Litaker and Georgie Mae Jones. He attended Belmont Abbey Junior College in Belmont, NC and Clemson A&M College in Clemson, SC prior to his appointment to the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY in 1942. After graduating from West Point in 1945 in a war-time accelerated program, Alfred served in Japan as part of the occupation forces, arriving in September 1945 where he was assigned to the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) in the Akita and the Miyagi prefectures.
It was in Sendai (Miyagi Prefecture) that Alfred met and fell in love with Joanne Johnson, who was there with her father, Colonel (U.S. Army) David T. Johnson and her mother Gertrude and youngest brother Peter. Alfred and Joanne were married in the Sendai military chapel on April 5, 1948. In April 2015 they celebrated 67 years of marriage prior to Joanne’s death in November of that year. They were wonderful parents to their four children – Christine, Randy, Jeanne and Terry – taking them around the world as Army “brats” to assignments in the U.S. and abroad (Georgia Tech University in Atlanta where he received a Master’s in Electrical Engineering; Ft. Hood, TX; Ft. Sill, OK; Ft. Bliss, TX; Ft. Leavenworth, KS; Heidelberg, Germany and Taipei, Taiwan).
Upon his retirement as a Lt. Col. after a 26-year Army career, Alfred and the family returned to Columbia where, in 1973, he received his Master’s in Library Science from the University of Missouri and subsequently worked for 15 years as the MU Engineering and Math Sciences librarian. Retiring from MU in 1988, he embarked upon a long career of service as a volunteer with various organizations, including Meals on Wheels, The Wardrobe and the Truman VA Hospital, where up until February 2019, he worked at least twice a week as a volunteer. He was honored recently with an award for 15,000 hours of volunteer service over his 29 years at the VA.
Alfred was a long-time member of Compass Evangelical Free Church in Columbia as well as the M. Graham Clark chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). He enjoyed the community at the Columbia Senior Center where he went for lunch several times a week with family. He felt especially connected to his Tuesday and Thursday VA volunteer friends.
The record of Alfred’s life – a veteran of WWII and the Korean War followed by years of service in the U.S. Army; his many years of contributions as a librarian and volunteer; and his love for family, friends and country – demonstrates how he was truly a sterling example of the “Greatest Generation”. We are grateful to have known him.
Alfred is survived by daughter Christine Hucks (Chuck Hucks) of Cary, NC; son Randall C. Jones of Columbia; daughter Jeanne Pfander (Michael Pfander) of Tucson, AZ; and son Terrill D. Jones (Debby) of Columbia. His extended family includes seven grandchildren (Robert, Ian, Morgan, Ashley, Caleb, Bill and Dave), and five great-grandchildren (Caleigh, Dylan, Ryann, Brynn and David).
On Monday, April 29, 2019, visitation will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., with funeral services following at 11 a.m. at Compass Evangelical Free Church, 600 Silvey Street, Columbia, Missouri, 65203. Officiating will be Pastor Ed Phillips. Burial with full military honors will be in Bethel Baptist Cemetery.
Flowers for the family or donations to the charity of the donor’s choice will be greatly appreciated by the family.
