Houston Endowment Inc.

After 14 years of public service in Washington, D.C., the Joneses returned to Houston in 1946 and began to focus on philanthropy. They felt education was the key to a healthy community and established scholarship programs to help students attend college. The programs included minority students and always were divided equally between men and women. By the time Mr. Jones passed away on June 1, 1956, the Foundation had helped more than 4,000 students attend 57 colleges and universities. In her later years, Mrs. Jones brought opera to Houston radio, served on the general council of New York’s Metropolitan Opera and helped first lady Mamie Eisenhower support military widows. She joined Houston Endowment’s board in 1954, and one year later the Foundation made a $1 million grant to build the Mary Gibbs Jones College at Rice Institute (now Rice University) so women, for the first time, could live on campus. More than 30 scholarship programs were named for Mrs. Jones, and since her death on August 20, 1962, many more Houston Endowment grants have carried her name as a tribute to her public service and philanthropy.

In a 1936 speech to the Princeton-Harvard-Yale Conference on Public Affairs, Mr. Jones said, “Success is measured by the service you render and the character of citizen you make rather than by the amount of money you amass.” The Joneses devoted their lives to service and were exemplary citizens. Sixty-six years ago, they began donating the money they amassed to Houston Endowment so they could, in perpetuity, continue to help create a thriving community where they prospered.