Topic: Jeff Jones

Jeff Jones (born 23 February 1947) is an environmental activist and consultant in Upstate New York. He was a national officer in Students for a Democratic Society, a founding member of Weatherman, and a leader of the Weather Underground.

Jeffrey Carl Jones (Jeff), the first child of Albert and Millie Jones, was born February 23, 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Four years later, the expanding Jones family moved to California’s San Fernando Valley, and his father eventually settled into a career at the Walt Disney Company in 1954. Having a father who worked for Disney enhanced young Jones’ popularity among his peers; with home screenings of the latest Mickey Mouse cartoons, a featured event at his birthday parties.

During World War II, his father, a pacifist and conscientious objector, was assigned for the duration of the war, to a civilian work camp in the Sierra Mountains of California. When his church abandoned him for not serving in the military, the Quakers in the camp embraced him, and he later immersed his family in their traditional ways. Uniforms in the Jones home (Boy Scouts, etc.) were not permitted; the YMCA would have to suffice. This minor restriction was no impediment, as young Jones (hereafter, Jones) excelled in academics, cross country, and school politics (student body president of his high school).