Ralph R. Jones

) from 1971 to 1974.

Early Life and Career

Born and raised on a farm in Collinsville in DeKalb County, Alabama, Jones earned his bachelor’s degree in agricultural education in 1935 from the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University), where he was an honor student and served as editor of the college agricultural newsletter. He earned his master’s degree in 1957 from Michigan State University. "Ralph Russell Jones," The Book of Memories, Epsilon Sigma Phi, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, 1992.]

Immediately after graduation from API, he worked for the Soil Conservation Service in Alabama from 1935-36. In 1936, he was hired by what was then known as the Alabama Extension Service, working as an assistant county agent in Hale County in 1936 and as a county agent in Washington County from 1936-48. [http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/aghy/aces/admin.htm "Finding Aid Cover Sheet, Alabama Cooperative Extension Service Subject Photographs, Historical Sketch of Agency," Auburn University Archives.] ] He was distinguished for his efforts in helping organize farming cooperatives and enhancing farm marketing systems. "Ralph Russell Jones," The Book of Memories, Epsilon Sigma Phi, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, 1992.]

In 1948, Jones located to Auburn to serve on the state Extension staff, originally to specialize in seed crop marketing. In 1957, he was appointed a specialist in Extension training and development. "Ralph Russell Jones," The Book of Memories, Epsilon Sigma Phi, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, 1992.]

From 1960-61, he returned to the field, serving as a district agent in southwest Alabama. He was named acting associate director of the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service in 1961, replacing Fred Robertson, who had moved up as acting director to fill in for E. T. York, who was serving temporarily as administrator for the federal Extension program.

From 1962-71, he served as associate director. In 1971, he was named Alabama Extension director, once again replacing Robertson, who had assumed fulltime duties as Auburn University vice president for Extension. [http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/aghy/aces/admin.htm "Finding Aid Cover Sheet, Alabama Cooperative Extension Service Subject Photographs, Historical Sketch of Agency," Auburn University Archives.] ]

Alabama Extension Director

In his “Report to the People,” published by the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service in 1972, Jones outlined his programming objectives, which largely reflected an organizational vision outlined more than a decade earlier by then-Director E. T. York.

Instead of focusing exclusively on traditional audiences, such as agricultural production, rural homemaking and youth development, Alabama Extension had begun branching out over the previous decade, adopting a more holistic approach aimed at a wider cross-section of Alabamians.

One notable example was the degree to which Alabama Extension agents and specialists had begun providing “guidance and technical assistance” to rural leaders to enhance local infrastructure, such as drinking water quality and solid waste disposal, as well as industrial development and leadership potential. As a common practice, county Extension chairpersons served as secretaries of local Rural and Development Committees, lending their advice and providing critical leadership and technical assistance when the need arose.

Extension perceived its role as working with localities to “stimulate local initiatives” and to provide critically needed technical assistance to local leaders. For example, Alabama Extension worked with one prospective pallet-manufacturing company by conducting a feasibility study and assisting with equipment acquisition and employee training.

Under Jones’ leadership, Alabama Extension also enhanced its reputation as a role model for other state Extension organizations in several ways. It became the first Extension program in the nation to cooperate with a university medical school to deliver vital health services to its clients — in this case, working with the medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to screen some 300 Clay County school children and 3,000 adult residents for diabetes.

Alabama Extension also was the first in the nation to inaugurate an environmental health division that assisted in the planning and coordination of programs aimed at addressing health and environmental problems throughout the state.

As farming became more mechanized in throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Alabama Extension’s main emphasis was on helping farmers to make more efficient use of farm resources and technology. One major focus was in helping farmers use cotton pesticides more efficiently and safely.

Following the explosive growth in livestock farming, Extension stepped up efforts to help farmers raise these animals more cost-effectively and to market them more profitably. By the 1970s, for example, Extension already had developed data-processing facilities through which farm data could be collected and analyzed — a technique that enabled livestock producers to make more informed production and marketing decisions."Report to the People," Auburn University, Cooperative Extension Service, 1972.]

Jones perhaps was most distinguished for his leadership qualities and continuing concern for Alabama agriculture."Ralph Russell Jones," The Book of Memories, Epsilon Sigma Phi, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, 1992.]

He was also considered a Cooperative Extension man to the core of his being, a sentiment perhaps best reflected in his final written communication to Extension colleagues as outgoing director in 1974.

"We have come through three very crucial years - years of change and progress, too," he wrote in his last Official Letter, Extension's internal newsletter. "The future is bright and the reason is that you are the greatest people on earth. I mean that most sincerely. With the dedication, cooperation and desire to serve that you've always shown, there is no limit to what Extension can do in the years ahead.""Ralph Russell Jones," The Book of Memories, Epsilon Sigma Phi, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, 1992.]

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