Gordon Lemin Jones Jr.

Austin lost a gifted original when on November 14, 2023, Gordon Jones gave up a very private fight against a long and debilitating illness. Fiercely independent until the very end, Gordon, with great determination, achieved his final ambition by dying at home and escaping a medical bureaucracy he increasingly loathed.

A first encounter with Gordon often led to a second and then a third and in many cases a life-long friendship. He was a damn good conversationalist for many reasons and top among them was his authentic interest in nearly everyone he met, which manifested in an unparalleled ability to listen to others. No passport or introduction was needed to engage with Gordon for he was blind to rank or status. While a conversation with Gordon could range from light to heavy, he brought to each a dry wit, a mind informed by deep and broad reading, a genuine curiosity about the world, and a stoic sense of our struggles with it.

After graduating from The University of Texas School of Law in 1970, he practiced law for several years in Austin before concluding that it made him miserable. So, he pursued other ways to earn a living including accounting, real estate, and a variety of odd jobs. Although his real estate investments in Austin were modest, his timing was prescient for just prior to the real estate crash of 1985 he disposed of all of his holdings except for a 2-acre homestead in South Austin he dubbed “Clawpac.”

Clawpac was a space of perpetual creativity and enjoyment: books were read, ideas discussed, intoxicants imbibed, art created, music played, pigs roasted, goat stewed, and Ph.D. dissertations birthed. Through a combination of steely determination, careful money management of the modest proceeds from his previous holdings, and a frugality that his exasperated friends considered impossible, Gordon was able to live and thrive at Clawpac for the next 40 years without ever returning to the workplace.

He devoted his considerable energy to improving Clawpac and through those efforts, Gordon became a self-taught and competent carpenter, electrician, plumber and cabinet maker. Gordon also became a landlord. When friends and acquaintances were down on their luck, he easily offered a place to crash and more than a few became paying tenants residing in one or the other of the two houses on the property.

His generosity was unrestrained, for through the years, Gordon also served as a personal banker to many. Against the advice of some of his more financially conservative friends, he loaned money to those who sought his help, but always with a written note and at the market rate of interest, conditions born out of his training as a lawyer and accountant.

It would be remiss not to mention Gordon’s great love and respect for dogs, which freely roamed Clawpac. Two deserve mention here: Sweeny and Farley. His choice of names is lost to us, but these are firmly established Irish-English-Welsh-Scotch surnames which Gordon may have chosen to reflect his ancestry. And long before science confirmed it, he was convinced that dogs possess many aspects of human intelligence, and he treated them accordingly.

To his close and even casual friends, Gordon will long be remembered for his brilliant mind, his wisdom informed by experience, his absolute love for learning, his compassion for others, his loyalty, and his insightful wit.

Gordon L. Jones, Jr. was born December 18, 1944, in San Angelo, Texas. He is survived by his sister, Cindy Godwin, and niece, Kelly Godwin, of Tucson, Arizona.

At a future date, a gathering of his friends at Clawpac is planned to continue the conversation.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.wcfishsouth.com for the Jones family.