Obituary - Cadwaladr Jones

Cadwaladr (Casey) Jones, 89, Moscow

Cadwaladr (Casey) Jones passed away Friday, July 18, 2003, at the Latah Health Services in Moscow, just a few weeks short of his 90th birthday.

He was born in Tacoma Sept. 10, 1913, to Cadwaladr Jones Sr. and Helen Anderson Jones, but his family left for the coal mines of West Virginia and Kentucky soon after he was born. His father was a mining engineer, and they moved from mining camp to mining camp.

He had an adventurous boyhood and had many great stories about the famous blood feuds of the area. By the time he was a senior in high school, the coal dust had affected his lungs, and the doctors said he had to get out of the mines. So he joined the civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) and came out West. He came up through the ranks, went to officer training and became a subaltern.

He was largely self-educated, learning accounting through a series of mail-order courses. After his time in the CCCs he went to work for the Air Force at Geiger Field in Spokane, where he was in charge of payroll. During the war, he traveled from base to base, helping their accounting departments learn the complicated regulations for wartime pay. When Geiger Field closed in 1946, he decided to take a position with a new college being formed at the old Farragut Naval Station on Lake Pen Oreille, Idaho. Farragut College never survived, and he transferred in 1948 to Washington State College, where he became the first accountant and general office manager for the food and housing department. In his 27 years at WSC (alter WSU), he liked to joke that the students paid him more than $6 million for a place to eat and sleep.

After his retirement from WSU, he began a second career as a carpenter and cabinet maker. His fine cabinets remain in many homes in the area. He also built a house for his mother-in-law and one for his daughter.

He married Shirley Town Sept. 5, 1936, in Pullman, and they had a long, happy life together. They loved to travel around the West with their travel trailer.

She survives him at their Moscow home. Other survivors are his three children, Alan and wife Brenda of Fairbanks, Alaska, Helen Wootton of Moscow, and Darrell and wife Kathi of Boise; five grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

He was very proud of his Welsh name and heritage, loved classical music and was an avid reader. His keen intellect and unexpected humor never left him, but his body failed, and he spent the last nine months in the nursing home. He was very close to the staff there, and his family is grateful for the loving care he received.

Memorial donations may be made to the local Humane Society or to St. Mark's Episcopal Church, where he was a long-time member.

Viewing is from 9 a.m. to noon today at Short's Funeral Chapel in Moscow. The memorial service is at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church at Moscow. Inurnment will follow at the Moscow Cemetery with the Rev. Stan Tate officiating.

Lewiston Tribune, July 22, 2003, p. 9A
Transcribed by Jill Leonard Nock