Bruce Lonnard Jones was born in Columbia, S.C., the second of three sons, to Earl Kenneth Jones and Lonnette Tapp Jones. When he was four years old, the Jones family moved to Prairie View, Texas. His father was a chemistry professor at Prairie View A&M for 22 years, and his mother was an elementary school teacher for over 20 years. He was baptized at age 15 at Mount Corinth Baptist Church in Hempstead, Texas.
He attended Prairie View High School, graduating 3rd in his class. He thrived academically, earning a B.A. in history from The Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. While attending law school he served as a Notes Editor for the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, worked for the N.Y. County District Attorney’s Office his first year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency his second, and the Wall Street law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison his third.
After graduating from law school and passing the bar, he returned to the Paul, Weiss law firm as an associate attorney and served there for six years. He then joined the Houston law firm of McDonald & McDonald. The firm’s biggest victory was a $1.2 million dollar settlement for back wages for 400 employees of the Lone Star Steel Company. The firm dissolved when Gabrielle Kirk McDonald was appointed a federal judge at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He then joined the law firm of Dewberry & Fitch. The law firm dissolved when Bonnie Fitch won election as judge of the 152nd District Court in Harris County. He then accepted a position at The Methodist Hospital while serving as attorney “Of Counsel” to several Houston law firms. He later joined three of his former colleagues from Methodist to work for Memorial Hermann Hospital.
He states that, next to the salvation of his soul and his birth, marrying Linda Grayer was the most important and best thing that ever happened in his life. Their years together have been his greatest blessing. She sustains him with her grace, warmth and wit, and is a constant source of strength to him. They are the proud parents of Kedron Lonnard-Earl Jones, their only child, who earned a B.A. in Business Administration from Southern Methodist University in 2010 and a Juris Doctor from Thurgood Marshall School of Law in 2013. Kedron loves the Lord and the church and this honors his mother and father who by word and life taught him to cherish the Word of God.
Pastor Albert McDaniel ordained Bruce a deacon and appointed him Sunday School superintendent in 1989 and 1990, respectively. Bruce has no desire to be simply a well-trained Christian, but one who genuinely loves mercy, does justly, and walks humbly with God. He believes he has the best job in the world. “Serving as a church officer allows me to feel that I am contributing to something that is bigger than myself or all of us put together, and that is the eternal cause of Christ.” Prayer nourishes his faith, one that is intellectually respectable. His education has taught him that problems can be solved with intellectual know-how, but faith lives beyond the horizon of reason in the arena where only God is sovereign. He strives to trust God fully with the mystery of life and death. He believes that each of us is called to a disciplined life of righteousness, and a daily walk of actively seeking God’s will.
Since God has allowed Bruce to have professional success and live an interesting and blessed life, he is grateful for the opportunity to contribute regularly to several charitable, educational and religious organizations dear to his heart, such as Mount Corinth Baptist Church, Prairie View, Ohio State, Columbia Law School, Greater Ebenezer, the United Negro College Fund, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Red Cross, United Way of Greater Houston, and the American Diabetes Association.
Greater Ebenezer Baptist Church
Bruce Jones
