Robert Wayne McJones

McJones, Robert Wayne Robert W. McJones, age 92, of Clark Retirement Community, formerly of CA, passed away Wednesday, June 17, 2015. Bob was born August 19, 1922 in Dodge City, KS to John and Emma (Fowler) McJones. He proudly served his country with the US Army Air Corps during WWII. Bob was preceded in death by his wife, Norma Jeane McJones. He will be deeply missed by his sons, Paul (Raquel) McJones, Bruce (Judi) McJones, Stephen (M'liz) McJones, and Justin (Madeleine) McJones; seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren. His family welcomes memories and messages in their guest book online at www.cookcares.com.

Robert Wayne McJones: Husband, father, pilot, engineer Growing up Robert Wayne McJones was born in Dodge City on August 19, 1922. His mother, Emma Eudora Fowler McJones, was from a pioneer family that moved to Ford County, Kansas in the mid 1880s from Michigan. His father, John William McJones, was from a family that had moved to Rice County, Kansas in the early 1870s from Missouri. When Robert was very young, his family moved to the nearby town of Ulysses, and to Bucklin when he was in the third grade. They returned to Dodge City when he was in junior high school. In high school he was able to learn photography because of a friend whose parents had a photography business. Robert graduated from Dodge City High School in 1941. In the fall, he enrolled in engineering at the University of Kansas, supporting himself with a scholarship and a part-time job repairing watches. In the spring of 1942 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps reserve program, hoping he would be able to finish his degree before being called for active duty. But in February 1943 he was called for active duty. World War II His flight training started in 1943 with Primary in PT-19's and Basic in BT-13's. By early 1944 he went on to Advanced training in UC-78's. In April he accepted a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, was rated Pilot, and began Transition training for the B-24 four-engine bomber. By October he and his crew received their orders to go overseas, ferrying a new B-24 to Townsville, Australia and on to Lae, New Guinea (with a one-week delay to fight the dengue fever he caught from a mosquito during a stop in Honolulu). In November and December he received final training, and flew his first combat mission December 15. By late May 1945 he had completed 41 combat missions, and was ordered to return to the US, finally arriving in Los Angeles at the end of July and given leave until September 2nd. With the Japanese surrender in August, the war ended. Robert decided to leave the military and continue his education, returning to the University of Kansas for a special shortened semester beginning 1 November 1945. College and marriage In January 1946, his cousin Mary Margaret Rickard introduced him to Norma Jeane Prater, who was a junior in music at K.U. Norma Jeane's family farmed wheat near Kismet, Kansas, about 60 miles from Dodge City. Robert and Norma Jeane dated that spring. In late April they were engaged, and were married on August 25 in Kismet. It turned out that Norma Jeane's cousin Gertha and her aunt Marietta grew up in Ulysses, and had gone to school with Robert's oldest brother Justin (who died in tragic accident in 1929). Also, Norma Jeane's mother Georgia had taken her to Robert's mother Emma's beauty parlor in Ulysses when she was a young girl. In June 1947, Robert graduated with a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering, and became the first person in the 57-year history of the K. U. engineering school to graduate with a straight-A average. That summer Robert participated in the wheat harvest on the Prater farm, and in the fall they moved to Pasadena, California, where Robert received a graduate fellowship to the California Institute of Technology. They lived in a Spartan Manor house trailer that they towed from Kansas. In June 1948, Robert received an M.S. in Aeronautics. Starting a career and a family Robert's first job after college was as an Aerodynamicist at Douglas Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California. He and Norma Jeane relocated the house trailer closer to the job, but soon decided they would need more space. They bought a small house in Playa Del Rey, near the L. A. Airport. Their first son, Paul, was born July 1949. In 1950, Robert joined the Marquardt Corporation as Chief Preliminary Design Analyst; he was responsible for all analytical studies relating to supersonic ramjet engines. Marquardt was in Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. Around the end of 1950, Robert and Norma Jeane began planning for a larger home. They purchased a small lot high above Bel Air, overlooking West Los Angeles, and had a small two-bedroom house built. To keep the cost down, Robert and Norma Jeane did the painting and some concrete work. While this house was being built, they lived in a rented duplex in Van Nuys. In May 1951, their second son, Bruce, was born; that November, the McJones family moved into their new home. In 1953, Robert became Chief Powerplant Engineer at American Helicopter Company, which was designing innovative but ultimately unsuccessful helicopters propelled by pulse-jet engines (including the XH-26 "Jet Jeep"). By 1955, Robert grew tired of working as an employee, and became a self-employed consulting engineer. Over the next five years his clients included companies such as Vickers, Douglas Aircraft, and Hughes Tool. The McJones family grew and prospered at their Bel Air home. The family took frequent trips to visit their grandparents in Kansas, and to explore the scenic beauty of California. They acquired a small motorboat, and took a memorable trip camping and water skiing on Lake Mead in Arizona. In July 1957 and May 1959, the family was completed with the births of the third and fourth sons, Justin and Stephen, respectively. Indiana interlude In 1960 Robert accepted a position as Manager of Applied Research at Cummins Engine Company, in Columbus, Indiana. Cummins is a manufacturer of diesel engines, and was concerned about the possible impact of alternatives such as fuel cells. Robert carried out an investigation, involving several business trips to consult the West German branch of the Battelle Memorial Institute. The older sons enjoyed living in a small town with a nearby woods and river. The family enjoyed trips in a larger motorboat exploring the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers. Other family trips included Chicago (water skiing in Lake Michigan), the artist community in nearby Brown County, and Kansas. Back in California for the duration But Robert didn't find the job satisfying, and decided to return to consulting back in the large Los Angeles aerospace industry, so the McJones family packed up and returned to California in a caravan of two automobiles. This time they settled in Palos Verdes Estates, within walking distance of shopping, the library, the beach, and the intermediate school that four sons attended. From this point on, Robert continued his career as a consulting engineer in an expanding range of disciplines including aerodynamics, heat transfer, aircraft and automotive power plants, pressurized systems, mechanical design, instrumentation, and computer applications. In the late 1970s he added failure analysis, including expert testimony in lawsuits. A major project in the early 1970s involved a system for operating automobiles on natural gas or gasoline, in a dual-fuel arrangement. The Palos Verdes home served as a comfortable base for a variety of activities as the sons grew up and began leaving home. The easy access to King Harbor to the north and San Pedro Harbor to the south suggested taking up sailing. Robert bought and sold a wide range of boats including a 24' sloop, several 8' dinghies, a 14' sloop, and a 12' catamaran. Having grown up around these boats, it is perhaps not surprising that sons Justin and Stephen became life-long sailors. Another activity the family enjoyed was car camping trips. Not satisfied with small travel trailers, Robert decided to design and build his own motor home. The first version, nick-named the Green Hornet, was based on an old UPS delivery van. It was followed a few years later by a larger vehicle based on an old city bus. This vehicle, Number 37, carried various family all around California as well as British Columbia, Kansas, and Baja California. In 1975 Robert learned of a very inexpensive house for sale not too far away in Rancho Palos Verdes, in a quiet neighborhood with a view of Catalina Island. The only problem was that the house was in an active landslide zone, and was in unlivable condition because of slide damage. Undaunted by the challenge, and thinking that by restoring the house to livable condition he could tap the equity in his current house for retirement savings, he designed and carried out an innovative renovation. He lifted the house up from its distorted concrete slab and inserted a system of steel beams as well as an entire new floor of laminated 2'x4's. Then he repaired the cracked wall and moved in. This design worked quite well for several years, requiring only occasional releveling by adjusting one of the support points for the steel beams. However a nearby buildable lot came up for sale, and Robert and his son Justin purchased it and built a second house, using a new idea: three recycled 40' cargo containers welded together, with a house resting on top. Since the containers could be supported at only three points, leveling became very simple compared to the steel beams, which needed to be supported at many points. With this experience under his belt, Robert decided to refit his own house with containers. This required excavating enough soil to insert each container, then welding them together - with the house temporarily supported by steel pipes through the whole process. Ever since this complex task was completed, the house has required little maintenance. With an empty nest by the 1980s, Robert and Norma Jeane began travelling much more: driving across the country to visit family members such as son Bruce in Michigan and Norma Jeane's mother in Kansas, taking a cruise from Quebec to Genoa, and flying to Scotland and England. In the late 1980s Norma Jeane was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, and then, presumably because of her weakened immune system, Coccidioidomycosis ("valley fever"), which progressed into her meninges. She died in 1993. By the time of Norma Jeane's death, Robert had already wound down his consulting practice. In retirement, he occupied himself with a variety of activities, including travel, family history, and antique collecting. He had been an early adopter of personal computers in the 1980s, and he continued this involvement, often helping a friend or organization solve a computer problem. One of Robert's maternal uncles wrote a self-published book of family history, and Robert devoted substantial effort into further documenting this branch of his family. He reestablished contact with a number of his cousins, borrowed and scanned photographs, and helped one of his cousins complete a family tree. He also went on an Alaskan cruise with some of these cousins. Although Robert's entire military career spanned less than three years, it was a formative part of his life, and during retirement he found it satisfying to spend time documenting his war years. He was able to read histories of the campaign in which he participated, get back in touch with some of his former crew members, and create an archive of relevant records for his descendants. During his cross-country driving trips, Robert and his travel companions enjoyed stopping at antique malls. Robert found himself drawn to antique typewriters, perhaps because of the way they combined ingenious mechanical design with elegant workmanship. He installed a display shelf of the most interesting models along one side of his living room. In 2013, after living about 65 years in California, 52 years on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and 36 years in the house he'd restored in Rancho Palos Verdes, Robert moved to a new home at the Franklin Campus of the Clark Retirement Community in Grand Rapids, Michigan, close to the home of his son Bruce and daughter-in-law Judi.