Claiborne S. Jones joined the faculty in 1944 and soon began his long and distinguished administrative career, first as a college and pre-med adviser, then as an academic affairs associate dean and later a vice chancellor, and finally vice chancellor for business and finance.
“Mastery of University policies and procedures,” his citation read, “wedded to the arts of academic diplomacy and informed by a sturdy purpose to achieve and defend the University’s highest aims, made him an adroit and doughty assistant to three chancellors.
“At his desk early and late,” the citation continued, “he was the memory bank of indispensable, unwritten knowledge of University machinery and custom, the leavening wit in many a dull or heated meeting, the wheel horse on countless committees, a precise writer and respecter of the noble English language, a keen-minded and commonsensical arbiter of many a tough dispute and a kind counsellor and friend to three or four generations of senior South Building neophytes.”