Bob Jones, Sr.
| Bob Jones Sr. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Robert Davis Reynolds Jones October 30, 1883 |
| Died | January 16, 1968 (aged 84) Greenville, South Carolina |
| Resting place | Bob Jones University |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation |
Evangelist University administrator |
| Home town | Brannon Stand (Dothan), Alabama |
| Title | President of Bob Jones University |
| Term | 1927-47 |
| Successor | Bob Jones, Jr. |
| Spouse(s) | Bernice Sheffield (1905-1906; died after 10 months), Mary Gaston Stollenwerck Jones |
| Children | Bob Jones, Jr. |
| Parent(s) | William Alexander Jones Georgia Ann Creel Jones |
Robert Reynolds "Bob" Jones Sr. (October 30, 1883 – January 16, 1968) was an American evangelist, pioneer religious broadcaster and the founder and first president of Bob Jones University.
Bob Jones was the son of William Alexander and Georgia Creel Jones and the eleventh of twelve children. In 1883, when Bob was born, Alex Jones, a Confederate veteran, was working a small farm in Dale County, Alabama, but within months the family moved to Brannon Stand west of Dothan. All the unmarried Jones children helped work the farm there, and Bob Jones often sold the family vegetables door-to-door in Dothan. Jones later recalled, "We may have been a little undernourished, but we built some character."
Jones's elementary schooling was sketchy by modern standards, but the boy early exhibited a quick mind and oratorical ability. Alex Jones had Bob memorize passages from the Bible and from literature, and Bob, who was "timid and self-conscious," was regularly called on to perform for guests. Jones later recalled, "I did whatever my father said to do, but when he told me to 'say the speech,' I suffered agony that nobody could possibly know."
Jones must have quickly overcome his stage fright, however, for by 1895, as a twelve-year-old, he gave a spirited, twenty-minute defense of the Populist Party while standing on a dry-goods box in front of a Dothan drug store. His gifts were recognized by Dr. Charles Jefferson Hammitt (1858–1935), a Methodist missionary from Philadelphia and former president of Mallalieu Seminary (1882–1923), a Methodist secondary school in Kinsey. Jones boarded with the Hammitts and helped pay his board by serving the household, even taking orders from the Hammitt children. Jones graduated from Mallalieu in 1900, and the following year he entered Southern College (later Birmingham-Southern College) at Greensboro, Alabama, supporting himself with his preaching. He attended until 1904 but by then was already so prominent as an evangelist that he left without taking a degree, in part to help support two widowed sisters.
...
Wikipedia