Businessman Ken Jones passes away

Guam’s pioneer businessman Kenneth T. Jones Jr., president of Jones & Guerrero Co. Inc., passed away in his sleep while visiting his home state of North Carolina on the night of Oct. 30.

According to a statement distributed to J&G’s group of companies that includes the Aquarius Beach Tower Hotel in Susupe, Ken Jones was the consummate entrepreneur, and his imprint on Guam will be everlasting.

“He has left his institution, Jones & Guerrero Co. Inc, to carry forward his plans and visions for the future, said the statement, a copy which was obtained by Saipan Tribune yesterday through Aquarius general manager William Hunter.

Hunter remembers Jones for being a great person.

“I am blessed to have personally known a great man like Mr. Ken Jones during my lifetime. He has impacted our islands in so many positive ways and will always be remembered. Our prayers are with him and his entire family, ” Hunter said.

“We all extend our prayers, love and sympathies to Elain, Ramona and Donna, and to Vivian, Linda and Ronnie who have lost not only their father but also their mother this week, and all members of the extended Jones and Cruz families. As immeasurable as our loss is, their loss is unfathomable,” said J&G in its statement.

Memorial services will be held in Guam in the following weeks but there is no definite date yet for his burial.

Jones’ company included restaurants, construction firms, hotels, auto companies and shipping in Guam and on Saipan.

Ken Jones is the older brother of Bob Jones, who owns Triple J and other businesses on Saipan.

Ken Jones also bred and raced thoroughbred horses in Australia and Kentucky where he owns Domino Stud Farm in Lexington.

Burial will take place in North Carolina alongside his parents, Christiana and Kenneth T. Jones, Sr. and his brother Watson.

According to the Pacific Daily News, Jones’ life in Guam as a businessman was the stuff of legends. News reports say he got started when he exchanged spare parts with Segundo Leon Guerrero, then head of the Navy-controlled government of Guam transportation division. That commercial partnership later evolved into Jones & Guerrero Enterprises.

Although Jones was transferred from Guam less than a year after being assigned there, he continued to work with Leon Guerrero by mailing 11-lb boxes of jewelry and plastic belts to Guerrero, who then sold the items from his Sinajana porch.

Since Guam was just beginning to recover from the war, there were few places for locals to spend their money.

Kenneth Jones found a need and filled it.

Pacific Daily News noted that after J&G Enterprises, Jones moved to bigger deals and countless real estate transactions, including opening Town House department store; J&G supermarkets, which became Pay-Less; the opening of Modular Homes; the purchase of Micronesian Brokers; and the construction of what is now the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa, the Cliff Hotel and Saipan’s Royal Taga.

PDN said Kenneth Jones also donated millions in charitable contributions that benefited Guam in his six decades as a businessman there.