Donald E. Jones, Jr.

I am my sole survivor and as such I feel that I am the best qualified person to write this, my final press release. I mean if I can’t get it right, who can? So, on a sunny 4th of July in 2015 I will sum up my years for anyone who might be interested. Don’t cry for me, Safety Harbor.

I was born In Chicago, IL in 1928 but grew up in the suburban Milwaukee Village of Shorewood on the shores of Lake Michigan. My mother Helen Jackson Jones died in 1934 shortly after the family moved to Wisconsin. My father remarried Florence McCarthy in 1939. I was graduated from Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, WI and received a B.A. from Lawrence College (now Lawrence University) in Appleton, WI.

I taught English and drama at Washington H.S. New London, WI for one year before serving two years in the U.S. Army in Japan during the Korean Conflict where I was responsible for teaching the United Nations Truce Team to speak English. While stationed in Tokyo I applied and was accepted at the Yale University Drama School.

During my study at Yale I became fascinated with Lloyd Richards, who received a Pulitzer Prize for directing "A Raisin in the Sun," and who was teaching at NYU. I transferred to NYU to study with Mr. Richards only to find he had accepted an appointment to lead the Yale Drama School. I received my M.A. from NYU.

My second teaching position was at Trinity School for Boys (now coed) in Manhattan where I taught English and was in charge of the theatre programs. I moved on to become Assistant to the Headmaster and was in charge of all school publications, social events and alumni relations. During that same time, I returned to Appleton, WI in the summer to serve as artistic and managing director of The Attic Theatre of which I was a founding member in 1950. I guided The Attic Theatre successfully for nine seasons until an offer to teach theatre at Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, NY made continuing to do both tasks impossible.

My step-mother died in 1981. In order to care for my father, I and my life partner of 47 years, David Alfano, moved to Safety Harbor. I taught theatre at Northeast HS until 1989. I have served as a trustee of The Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa and on the Pinellas County Cultural Committee. For the last twenty 24 years, I have served as the voluntary Program Chair for the Florida State Thespian Conference which is held annually in Tampa in the spring and hosts 10,000 Florida high school theatre students.

My life partner, David Michael Alfano, lost his battle with leukemia in May, 2012. There are no immediate survivors other than friends, students and actors from Washington HS, New London, WI, The Attic Theatre, Appleton, WI, Trinity School for Boys, NYC, Paul D. Schreiber HS, Port Washington, NY and Northeast HS, St. Petersburg, FL. Of all my productions, I took the most pride in the 47 years I spent happily with my friend and soul mate – David – whom I met on a sunny afternoon in September at the Greenwich Village Outdoor Art Show. And now, together again – for eternity! The afterlife will resound with laughter, reminiscences, and more stepping on each other’s laugh lines.

“Remember me in light.” Henry Albertson in The Fantasticks. Actually, remember us both in light.

In lieu of flowers contributions may be made in our names to The David M. Alfano and Don E. Jones, Jr. fund at The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay to be used as scholarships for future arts students at the Patel Conservatory at the David A. Straz, Jr. Performing Arts Center.

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