1915-1994
My father was a very interesting man, a deep thinker, but quiet, not given to much conversation. He had a keen intellect, but was unable to share it with his family, I suppose in part, because we, as his children showed little interest in the things he was interested in. It was only after his death that I began to read his books, and short stories. I found them to be fascinating. I wish that I could now sit down and talk with him about the ideas he developed in his stories. My father died in 1994, my mother in 1970. I spoke at his funeral. Some of the information I was able to incorporate into my talk was derived from reading the business correspondence he had saved. The thing I remember most about him, was that although he was an earth bound mortal, in reality, he seemed to live his life in a far different sphere than the rest of us. He did indeed live among the stars.
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1915-1994 |
Funeral talk for Raymond F. Jones, given January 27, 1994 by son Richard Kimball Jones, in the Winder 6th Ward.
Born 1915 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Attended Madison elementary and Madison Jr. High, then LDS High School and Granite High School, and the University of Utah.
Attended church at the Burton Ward - now Howell's Rent
A few streets to the north of 24th south, on Commonwealth Ave. lived Eunice Kimball, a divorcee with 4 daughters - Elaine, Lenore, Thelma and Joyce.
Met Elaine at age 16, but did not become interested in her until several years later.
After high school, Dad served a mission for the LDS church in the Galveston TX area. Distinguished himself as a district president and often conducted meetings presided over by mission president L. Ray Christiansen and apostle Stephen L. Richards.
Eunice moved to California with her four daughters where she operated a boarding house to support herself.
Following the mission, Dad returned to Salt Lake and enrolled at the U of U and stayed for nearly three years.
In 1939, he took a position with the Western Electric Co. and relocated to Alb., NM.
Elaine had returned to Salt Lake and in 1940, Ray and Elaine were married in the Salt Lake Temple.
From Alb., Dad moved to Baltimore MD where he worked several years with the Bendex Radio Co., then, because of asthma conditions, moved to the warm climate of Phoenix, AZ where he secured work as a junior weather observer with the National Weather Bureau.
It was in Phoenix that we five children were born.
After the war, dad moved from the suburbs to the country to try his hand at chicken farming, something that was quite in vogue in different parts of the country.
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| The chicken coop built in 1946, just after WW II ended. The venture failed, but the building made a nice office. |
This venture lasted less than 2 summers, as the hot Phoenix desert sun suffocated all the baby chickens.(Or maybe it was due to a disease.)
Dad had begun writing at an early age, having sold his first short story at age 17. With the chicken venture gone and no longer being employed at the weather bureau, dad decided to try and make a living by writing, his specialty - science-fiction.
An office was built in the abandoned chicken coop, and he spent his days there cranking out material for the science fiction market. With the death of his parents in '52 - '53, the family moved back to Salt Lake, to his boyhood home on 24th south and 2nd east.
He continued to write, but the income was insufficient, so he took a job with the Genealogical Society as a researcher, then a position with Sperry Utah as a technical writer. It was from Sperry that he retired.
Mother passed away in 1970 and in 1973, he married Lillian Watts.
After about 1980, dad ceased to write and devoted his time to genealogical research and commodities trading and learning the ins and outs of being a grandfather, activities he was engaged in until his death January 24, 1994 at age 78.
A very private man, not given to great conversations, not given to conversation at all, not one to say anything about himself or anyone else.
Laura and I asked dad, a few years ago, to please write down his autobiography. His response, "If you want to know about me, read my books, that's where you'll find me, that's were you'll learn about me."
Dad wrote over 25 books, hundreds of short stories, and numerous articles on various subject matter. It is then to his writings, letters, manuscripts and other correspondence that we must go, to gain insight into this quiet man.
He saved a lot of his early school work - his papers and assignments from high school. Their content - chemistry, physics and math assignments, balanced by theology lessons from seminary. His handwriting is neat, assignments are always coupled with diagrams and drawings explaining experiments he had observed and always there appeared on the papers the teacher’s comments which usually read "Excellent."
At this early age of schooling, dad displayed a keen interest in the world around him. This interest centered on science, scientific observation, history, archaeology, astronomy and personal exploration.
We get a glimpse of dad's interests in life through a response letter he sent to his publisher.
The letter from the publisher to dad read:
Dear Ray,
Time-Life Books have just informed me that they're initiating a new series on man's evolution and achievement of civilization, entitled the EMERGENCE OF MAN. There will be 24 books in the series, and I'm enclosing a list of Time-Life's projected titles in the series.
What Time-Life is after, seems to me to be tailor-made for you...the editors feel that s-f writers, with excellent research abilities would make the best authors for the projected books of the new series.
Look at the titles, pick out the ones you'd like to write about, then on a separate sheet write some details about your background.
From the list, dad choose:
Concerning details about his background he wrote, "Archaeology and anthropology have been among my major interests throughout my lifetime. In the Southwest, where I have lived most of my life, I have traveled and photographed extensively and have participated in University explorations and excavations of mounds in the area.
I have accumulated an extensive library related to the archaeology of Central and south America and the Pacific Islands, and have studied the Mediterranean and British Isle areas extensively.
Because the proposed Time-Life series on the EMERGENCE OF MAN is so close to these personal interests and studies, I would welcome an assignment on the project..."
During the 30's, 40's and 50's, science-fiction stories were the rage. Numerous short stories appeared in pulp magazines with such names as Analog, Galaxy, Fantasy, Astounding Science Fiction, Thrilling Wonder stories.
As a boy, with no television to consume his spare time, dad became an avid reader of this material. His imagination soared as he read about flying saucers with their alien space invaders, space travel, time machines, space ships, and lone scientists puttering around in elaborate laboratories, discovering and inventing both death rays and life saving cures for diseases inflected upon earth's population by evil beings from the worlds beyond.
In 1932, at age 17, dad wrote his first s-f story and had it published. The die was cast.
In 1950, while still living in Phoenix and working in the office in the chicken coop, his publisher writes to him:
Dear Mr. Jones:
As you probably know, there is no fiction market today which is hotter and more active than the science-fiction market. For quite a while now I've been selling virtually all the s-f material which reaches my desk -- selling it in short order and for good rates - 3 cents a word.
I've decided to expand my list of s-f clients to meet the great market demand, and I'd very much like to include your name on that list -- a list, incidentally, which already includes many of the top names in the field..."
A month later, the same publisher writes:
Dear Mr. Jones:
I was more than a little surprised when you wrote me that you earn about $2500 a year by your s-f writing. That's a pretty low sum when you consider it's earned by someone who should be regarded as one of the half-dozen best s-f writers writing today."
Dad's star is set on the horizon. Convinced that he has what it takes to be a first class author - he sets himself the task of writing a full length novel. His first one appears in 1951 -The Toymaker. The inside flap reads: The Toymaker is the absorbing story of the struggle between the solar system's two leading civilizations for economic and political control. And it is also a gripping and penetrating study of the psychological differences of two men: Pro. Rold Theorn, working for a peaceful solution to the galactic problems, and Senator Callimus, who is using the resources of super-science to whip the people into a mood for total-war. Sub-chapter: The Model Shop is the turbulent tale of the badly-bewildered technicians at North State Laboratories, who find their plans some-what changed by unexpected visitors from an unknown time. While in The Deadly Host men discover that weird insects from the mechanical planet of Sian are invading Earth, bringing disaster to the crowded cities.
This is followed in 1952 with his most famous novel - This Island Earth which was later made into a move of the same name. From the inside flap: Ever hear of an interocitor? No? Well, don't be surprised - neither had Cal Meacham, electronics engineer and chief of research at Ryberg Instrument. Nor had Cal ever heard of a catherimine tube with an endiom complex of plus four. Yet these, and other equally bewildering apparatus, were offered for sale in the catalogue from Electronic Service Unit 16."
Also in 1952, he wrote the Son of the Stars
In the world of s-f readers, dad had his devoted followers. From his mail bag comes this letter.
Dear Mr. Jones:
Having been an avid fan and reader of your science fiction novels since the early 1950's, I hardly know where to begin this letter, but as anyone telling a story knows, we must start at the beginning. When I was a young lad growing up in the 1950's, I began reading s-f oriented comic books and soon graduated to the pulp novel magazines so popular then such as Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures.
...I must confess, I can't hold it back any longer--one of my very favorite s-f films, as well as novels, is the classic known asThis Island Earth. I saw the movie when it first came out in 1955, and read your novel immediately afterward, because it really stirred up my interest. I was fascinated with the characters and the concepts you included in the novel, such as the interocitor and 'Electronic Service-Unit 16."
As always happens, literary tastes change. The great day of s-f writing came to an end. By 1978, the same publisher who in 1950 had talked in such glowing terms of the unquenchable appetite for s-f material now writes:
Dear Ray:
Thanks for sending onThe Day of the Puritan. I enjoyed the read, but in all candor must tell you that the chances of a sale on this are very small. To begin with, all of the potential markets have already been covered, - Analog, Galaxy, Fantasy and Astounding Science Fiction.
The datedness reveals itself both in theme and in style. Even the most way out s-f succeeds because it reflects in some way the age in which it appears, and deals with issues which are current. No matter what year is the setting for a novel, the real or mental year has got to be the year in which it's going to appear..."
In effect, what has happened, was that the reading public had entered the Star Trek era of science-fiction, while dad was still producing Flash Gordon type material.
He moves away from the s-f field of writing and concentrates more on contract writing - producing specific writings for a specific publisher. He does a book on physicians, one on weather, one on radar, etc.
In the early 80's, after nearly 40 years of writing, he lays his pen down. The ideas, the concepts, the imagination, the interest - they're all still there, but the market has evaporated, the fun has gone out of it.
So now, we know something about the man, his dreams, his goals, his aspirations, but what is it that we will remember him for? What will be the value of his life, what will be his greatest contribution to society, to his family.
Will it be his observations of the weather, his knowledge of radio and radar and his ability to explain these concepts so that the layman understands. Will it be his writings? Will it be his work as a genealogical researcher or his technical writings at Sperry/Univac?
I submit that dad will be remembered most for the legacy he left his family.
As human and frail as dad's own parents were, they nevertheless imparted to him the legacy that they both had received from their parents - and that is a living testimony that God lives, that he cares about us - his children, that he answers prayers as well as a knowledge of his true identify - that he was a literal son of God.
This torch of knowledge was passed to dad and he did not drop it. He then passed it on to his children and grandchildren. He has kept the legacy alive.
He understood the Godhead, and the Plan of Salvation, our purpose on earth and the all important role Christ plays in our personal lives.
He had a vibrant testimony of Jesus Christ. He knew for certain that the Book of Mormon was true. . He knew the value of service. Like his father and grandfather before him, he honored and respected the Sabbath and he showed reverence and obedience to deity in the performance of his church callings.
Dad's philosophy and outlook on life can be summed up in a talk given by apostle Steven L. Richards in 1938, while visiting the Texas Mission:
In the justice of God everyone, all of his children, must be treated alike. And it is because of this conception, therefore, that we do work for our ancestral dead who have not had the privileges that we, ourselves, enjoy. While it may seem impossible, yet in the economy of God it is all possible, because he cannot be unjust or unfair to any living son. Now that conception enters into our understanding of the family.
We have a remarkable revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants. It is what we call the revelation of the Glories. It sets forth more perfectly than is to be found anywhere in all scripture so far as I know, the conditions that will prevail hereafter. It defines, at least in part, the glories that will prevail in our future life. It tells us that those glories, as Paul indicated, are comparable to the glory of the sun, the moon and the stars, with the glory of the sun (celestial) being the most to be desired of all. Then it tells us how those glories are to be received. It indicates what will be the nature of the Celestial Glory. In that glory will be the Father and the Son and they who are privileged to enter therein shall share in his presence and in his glory and in addition thereto, that in that glory or kingdom that families shall be reunited so that the family relationship may be perpetuated forever and ever.
And it is significant and, I believe, all important to everyone of our Father's children that it is only in that kingdom that the family relationship shall be consummated and perpetuated. There is no work in all scripture to give us the understanding that families may be brought together hereafter only in the Celestial kingdom of our God. That becomes significant and highly vital to us if we will have our families--if we want these associations to be continued.
To a Latter-day Saint there could be no Heaven without families. I could desire no place hereafter in a sphere where my family were not present. The dearest ties that I have, those that bring me the utmost pleasure and joy, are those associated with my home. Take me out of my home and give me a place however beautiful and it could not be Heaven to me. And so the Latter-day Saint conception of Heaven is little more than a projection of our homes into eternity.
This is the knowledge that dad had. This is the legacy that he passed on to his descendants. This is what he will best be remembered for.