James F. Jones, Jr., president of Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan, will take office on July 1, 2004, as Trinity’s 21st president. At Kalamazoo, Jones initiated development of a strategic plan and a comprehensive capital campaign that led to the endowment of 10 faculty chairs, substantial student scholarship and faculty development funds, as well as the renovation of major buildings. Under his leadership, the College was repositioned to play a pivotal role in the local community while gaining extensive external funding support nationally.

Prior to joining Kalamazoo in 1996, Jones was professor in the humanities and vice provost of Southern Methodist University and dean of SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences in Dallas, Texas. From 1975 to 1991, he held various academic positions at Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri, including professor and chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literature for almost a decade, as well as serving as the founder and director, Summer Language Institute in France, Château de la Hercerie, La Croix-en-Touraine. Earlier, he served as preceptor, Department of French and Romance Philology, Columbia University, and as chair of the Department of Foreign Languages, Woodward Academy, Atlanta, Georgia.

Jones received his Doctorate and Master of Philosophy degrees from Columbia University and earned a Master of Arts from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia. He holds a Certificat, Degré Avancé, from the Ecole des Professeurs de Français à l’Etranger, the Sorbonne. He is the author of three books, the last of which, Rousseau’s Dialogues: An Interpretive Essay, was nominated for the prestigious Gottschalk Prize, and more than 50 articles and reviews. His scholarship was recognized by the French government when he was named a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques in the mid-1980s.

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