Published September 24, 2020

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING — Members of the Select Board offered their condolences to the family of Bradley H. Jones Sr. at their meeting Monday night. Jones, who died on Labor Day just three weeks shy of his 90th birthday, dedicated several decades of his life volunteering on numerous town committees and offering his fiscal acumen to the town’s affairs.

An Air Force veteran of the Korean War, Brad and Jean, his wife of 67 years, moved to town in 1959 and raised their three children here. They helped establish the Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation, on which they served for 40 years. He was a longtime member of the Finance Committee and was always an active and engaged participant at Town Meetings. He also served on the Middle School Building Committee and numerous town search committees in addition to volunteering as a youth sports coach.

“For me personally, I spent hours and hours conversing with Mr. Jones over the years and taking his counsel; he certainly offered it a lot!” commented Select Board member Stephen O’Leary.

O’Leary said it was important for the board to acknowledge the passing of such a “tremendous individual” who “contributed a significant amount of time, effort and energy to make this community what it is today. He spent many years on the Finance Committee; he was one of the founding fathers of the Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation; he was on several building committees, and an active member of the community.”

“I certainly appreciated all the dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of meetings I had with him, and his offering his advice, counsel and opinions on most everything. He was wonderful,” O’Leary said. He thanked Brad’s wife Jean, his sons Brad and Mark, his daughter Karen and their families “for sharing him with us. It is a true loss to the community but we had him for a long time and that is greatly appreciated.”

Select Board Vice Chairwoman Liane Gonzalez also wanted to publicly honor Jones. “He was a personal friend. Jean is a personal friend,” Gonzalez said, adding, “He was a wonderful man who could always make me laugh and he had lots of stories that he loved to tell and I always enjoyed.”

Although she did not know him personally, Select Board Chairwoman Kate Manupelli said she had heard a lot about him over the years. “I also can easily see the impact that he left isn’t in just what he’s done for the community – which I have heard stories of his own public service – but it’s very clear from what his son is doing, that is really a measure of his impact is in his own son’s lengthy public service for our town and all the things his son does for the town,” she said, acknowledging the service of State Rep. Brad Jones Jr., the House Minority Leader. “They are in my thoughts and my prayers.”

Finance Committee member Don Kelliher asked the members of the Select Board if they were entertaining “an appropriate memorial for Brad. He had done so much for the town, it would be nice if there was…some form of a memorial. I have not idea what it would be, but I am planting that seed.”

Manupelli agreed that would be wonderful idea. Gonzalez offered that she has spoken to a couple of people about it and she planned to approach the board in the spring.

Gonzalez suggested that planting a tree in North Parish Park, which is located across the street from Jones’ home, would be a lasting tribute. “It is something that we could do as board or as a town. It is just being talked about right now and it would be nice if we could do it,” she said.

Manupelli said that adding a memorial plaque near such a tree would be nice as well.

A week after his passing, state Senator Bruce Tarr offered a motion that the Adjournment of the Senate on September 14 be done “as a mark of respect in memory of Bradley H. Jones Sr., at twelve minutes before twelve o’clock noon.” The complete motion, which included his obituary, became part of the Journal of the Senate for that date. Afterwards, Tarr presented a copy of that journal page to his friend, Brad Jones Jr.