Winter 2008 — Vol. 61, No. 1
Cemetery Chronicles
The General
by Rose Jones Davis
Robert Morgan “Bob” Jones
1908-1988
Known affectionately as “the General,” Bob Jones ’30 served his alma mater for 47 years while serving his country and raising a family. Throughout his life, his outstanding moral character was a model to countless student athletes, soldiers and others.
Robert Morgan “Bob” Jones was born Nov. 18, 1908, in the small farming town of Starr. At Starr High School, he never carried a football or scored a touchdown because, at the time, Starr had no football team! It did, however, have basketball and baseball teams, and in those sports, Jones discovered his talents as an athlete. When he entered Clemson College in 1926, he was introduced to the game of football, which would shape his career and become a part of his life’s work and love.
At Clemson, Jones lettered in both basketball and football. He was team captain in basketball and alternate team captain in football. In 1930, he was voted to the All South Atlantic Football Team. In that same year, Jones graduated with a B.S. in animal husbandry and was awarded the Norris Trophy as “the cadet who most distinguishes himself in athletics.”
Jones’ love of football and Clemson kept him on campus after graduation where he accepted a job working for head coach Josh Cody as coach of the freshman football team.
From 1931 to 1969 — interrupted only by military service — he was an assistant defensive coach for the varsity team, working with three legendary Clemson football coaches — Cody, Jess Neely and Frank Howard. He was a charter member of IPTAY and a frequent speaker at IPTAY events and football banquets.
Jones also coached the Tiger boxing teams from 1931 to 1941 and 1946 to 1947. His teams won the Southern Conference championships in 1938 and 1940. He was the Southern Conference Boxing Commissioner in 1947.
From 1970 until his retirement in 1974, Bob Jones was golf coach and assistant to the athletic director. The 15th hole at Clemson’s Walker Course is named in his honor. In 1974, he was elected to the Clemson University Athletic Hall of Fame. In 1976, he was further recognized for his exceptional career with his induction into the S.C. Athletic Hall of Fame. 
Jones’ outstanding military career was woven into the fabric of his Clemson life. Having earned a commission as a reserve second lieutenant at Clemson, he was called to active duty in World War II in May 1941 as a U.S. Army captain. He was promoted to major and then to lieutenant colonel and battalion commander.
Returning from the war in 1946, Jones entered the Army Reserves and retired in 1965 with the rank of major general. At that time he was commanding general of the 108th Reserve Division in North and South Carolina.
While serving his country, Jones received the Legion of Merit, the Silver Star for gallantry, the Bronze Star with cluster for heroism, the Purple Heart with cluster for valor, four major campaign ribbons, the Presidential Unit Citation, Commendation Medal with Pendant and Combat Infantryman’s Badge.
In addition to his military and athletic awards, Jones received Clemson’s highest Alumni Association honor in 1963, the Distinguished Service Award. In 1988, shortly after his death, he was honored posthumously as a Distinguished Centennial Alumnus from the College of Agricultural Sciences.
While Jones served his alma mater and his country, he was also a family man. He married Ellen Moseley of Anderson and had three daughters and six grandchildren. Two of his daughters married Clemson graduates, and two of his granddaughters graduated from Clemson.
Bob Jones was a man born to coach, counsel and command. His final resting place in the Woodland Cemetery is a fitting tribute for one of Clemson’s most distinguished sons.
Rose Jones Davis, daughter of Bob Jones and author of this chronicle, worked for Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service as a statewide nutrition specialist. She retired in 1999 as professor emerita. She lives in Darlington with her husband, John W. Davis ’63, a veterinarian. They’ve endowed the coaches’ dressing room in the new WestZone in honor of “the General.”
Cemetery Chronicles is a series on the honored inhabitants of Clemson’s Woodland Cemetery, better known as Cemetery Hill. For more information about the cemetery’s historical value, contact Matt Dunbar at tigeray@alumni.clemson.edu.
For more Cemetery Chronicles, visit the Web at www.clemson.edu/clemsonworld/chronicles/.
To support its preservation and research, you can make a gift online and designate it for the “Cemetery Hill Preservation Fund.”