Board of Visitors member Joie Jones passed away late last year. The Board and the School of Nursing greatly appreciate Joie's admiration and support of nursing and nursing education. She will be greatly missed.
Prior to becoming a member of the UAB School of Nursing's Board of Visitors (BOV), Joie Jones had been immersed in health care for years as a medical technologist. She deeply appreciated the roles that nurses play in patient care.
In 2004, Joie was interviewed for this Board Briefs publication. At that time, she was a client-relations manager for Birmingham-based Skin Pathology Associates, a pathologists' practice specializing in dermatopathology (diagnosing of skin diseases, including skin cancers). Her husband, Dr. Robert E. "Bob" Jones, Jr., was a partner in that practice. Having become a BOV member in 2003, Joie spoke of her belief in BOV work. "I can't say enough about how important I feel it is that our Board is providing scholarships to educate additional competent, caring nurses."
Joie would continue to be a BOV member until her death on December 22, 2012.
As part of her service during those years, Joie joined fellow BOV members Jean Tomlinson and Donna Reddinger in co-chairing the BOV's 2006 fundraiser. That event, with a patriotic military Australian theme of "Bivouac in the Outback," was among a series of BOV fundraisers inspired by the M*A*S*H movie and television series.
Current BOV Co-Chair Barbara O'Neal Eddleman, a friend of Joie's, paid tribute to her. "Joie loved the UAB School of Nursing and the Board of Visitors," said Barbara. "She gave so willingly of herself to the Board's work to support the School. Too, Joie was a kind, loving, and giving friend."
In her 2004 interview, Joie recalled knowing by the time she was in high school that she wanted to work in the health field. After attending Tift College in Forsyth, Georgia, she entered Anderson College's medical technology program, in her hometown of Anderson, South Carolina.
In addition to working as a medical technologist, Joie did volunteer work, such as supporting Alabama Symphony and Birmingham Music Club activities. When asked to join the BOV and thus support the UAB School of Nursing, she felt closely connected to this health-related cause.
Already aware of nurses' contributions, Joie said she became even more aware on a personal level during early 2004, when her mother was gravely ill and she was with her mom a great deal during that time. "Long before this period when my mother was so ill, I had realized the value of good nurse, and I had realized there is a severe shortage of good nurses," said Joie. "But during those weeks at my mother's bedside I absolutely came to appreciate these realities more than ever! When my mother was ill, it came home to me that the nurse is the main person with whom a hospital patient and the patient's family communicate – the main person."
