Myron Jones (“Bud,” “Mike”), 77, passed away on September 22, 2018, at his home in Fort Collins, CO, after two strokes and several months of declining health. Mike was descended from Ezra Jones, his fifth great-grandfather. Ezra (1752-1841) was the first of the Jones family who had a connection to Waitsfield. Mike was the only son of Earle and Harriet Leach Jones, born August 7, 1941, in Montpelier, VT.
In his preschool years Mike lived on the dairy farm that was originally owned by his grandfather, George Myron Jones, and is now the Mad River Inn on Tremblay Road in Waitsfield. After WWII, the family moved to the village and lived in an 1837 home two doors north of the United Church of Christ. Mike graduated from Waitsfield High School in 1959 and from the University of Vermont in 1963 with a B.S. in civil engineering. After graduation, Mike moved to Missouri where he worked for Black & Veach in Kansas City in the 1960s. Mike received an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Missouri in 1966. In the early 1970s Mike moved to a new mountain range in Colorado where he worked for Stanley Structures in Denver. In the 1980s Mike started his own company, Acorn Textiles in Denver, where he designed and manufactured insulating blankets for the pre-stressed concrete industry. After selling that business in the late 1980s, he started a second business, Jones and Gardner Engineering, designing and building custom “gizmos” for companies across North America. He was fortunate to be able to continue this work until shortly before his death.
Mike enjoyed the outdoors, especially camping and Jeeping in the mountains. A few years ago he became involved as a mentor to the local high school’s First League, a national robotics competition where teams design and build robots for a distinct challenge each year. Mike offered his engineering expertise and in return, was amazed at what these kids were capable of creating. Mike will be fondly remembered by many who crossed his path over the years for his dry sense of humor, his storytelling ability, his keen intellect, his no-nonsense attitude and his creativity.
Mike is survived by Sherry Gardner, his wife of 31 years; his son Matthew, wife Amy and their son Michael (Mick) Jones of Lakewood, CO; sisters, Roena Hardy and her husband Richard of Sebring, FL, Lois Jones of Berkeley, CA, and Ann Ingalls and her husband Ray of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; and several nieces and nephews. Sandra Jones, mother of his son, also survived him. He was predeceased by his parents.
Some of Mike’s family are visiting the Mad River Valley this week to mark the first anniversary of Mike’s death and to enjoy all that the Mad River Valley has to offer.
