John R. Jones, Jr.

John Rucker Jones, Jr. of Falls Church, Virginia passed away on June 14, 2025 at the age of 82 in his beloved retirement home, Vinson Hall in McLean, VA with his immediate family surrounding him. He was born on December 22, 1942 in Washington, DC purely because there were no hospitals in Arlington County, VA at the time. He was the first child of Jack and Helen Jones and helped welcome a sister, Harriet three years later.

His early years of schooling in Arlington County, VA weren’t the easiest since he was the last generation of children who hadn’t been diagnosed as dyslexic at a young age. In order to help his studies, his parents opted to send him to a series of private schools, desiring his evident abilities could be understood and enhanced. Eventually he enrolled in Sewanee Military Academy in Tennessee where he found a new lease on life and developed a life long respect and admiration for the military.

After graduation, he attended Indiana Institute of Technology in Fort Wayne, Indiana and, while at a dance in town, he met his future wife, Marilyn Morton. They dated for a year and married in Marilyn’s hometown of Lombard, IL on his birthday in 1965. For the first three years of John and Marilyn’s marriage, he was employed as a flight instructor at Fort Wayne’s Baer Field, having started flying lessons at the age of 15. He and Marilyn remembered special flights they took in the aftermath of snow storms to Detroit to deliver auto parts to the car manufacturers when trucks could not get through.

In 1972, John and Marilyn became parents to Rebecca and, five years later, to Andrew. In 2002, John became a father-in-law to Khatuna Khinkiladze and a grandfather the following year to Leah. During the following five years, two more grandchildren, Lisa and David, were added and he thrilled to the prospect of making them pancakes their first morning of any visit. As a parent and grandparent, John wanted his family to broaden their horizons through travel. He made it possible for his family to go on several car trips which led to Maine, Florida, the Midwest and twice to the West Coast. Many is the tale of John saving the day after travel mishaps including the engine falling out of the car at 70mph on the Indiana Turnpike and finding a Greyhound bus home on New Year’s Day and also being stuck for several hours in Donner Pass without a place to stay for the night and having to call nearly every hotel and motel in Nevada. As his grandchildren became old enough, travel to Pennsylvania Amish country and Williamsburg were enjoyed together.

In late 1968, John’s father asked him to come back to Virginia and join the family real estate business, George H. Rucker Realty Corporation. Once there, John spent some time managing properties and learning the business. Once he felt confident in his newfound skills, John decided to leave the family business and set out on his own in real estate development and management. Later he developed land in rural Louisiana adjacent to Ft. Polk into an apartment community complete with its own water and wastewater treatment plants. This community was his pride and joy as well as the root of his periodic sleepless nights. Though he worked hard to keep the property running well, he never once entertained the idea of leaving his beloved Virginia. Being the ninth generation Virginian, going back to the founding of the country, he cherished the state’s history and of his family’s within it.

Following in his father’s footsteps, John spent a sizeable portion of his time working with charities. Among his pursuits was serving on the executive committees of the Baptist World Alliance, the Northern Virginia Urban League, the National Hospital for Orthopedic Rehabilitation and also as a trustee for Fork Union Military Academy.

John will be remembered for his positive outlook on what life might bring and how to overcome adversity with grace and humor. Good and bad jokes were met with the same enthusiasm because it was all in good fun. The night before his death, he was asked, playfully, if the sound of rain was making him thirsty since he had asked for so much water and he nodded his head. That being said, perhaps the most important part of his personality that will be sorely missed was his warm welcome into any church, charity or social group he joined. He loved his position as the head of the usher committee at his church, always ready to shake the hand of a stranger and write down their name to remember it. Upon moving to Vinson Hall in 2022, John quickly joined the Happy Hour group in the Penthouse and always urged new residents he met to join the group, too.

John is survived by his wife of 59 years, Marilyn, his two children Rebecca and Andrew (wife Khatuna Khinkiladze) Jones and three grandchildren, Leah, Lisa and David Jones.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held August 21st, at 10am, McLean Baptist Church, 1367 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, Virginia.

In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes memorial donations to McLean Baptist Church; https://www.mcleanbaptist.org/ Baptist World Alliance (405 N. Washington St., Falls Church, VA 22046); https://baptistworld.org/ or Navy Marine Coast Guard Residence Foundation (6251 Old Dominion Dr., McLean, VA 22101).https://www.vinsonhall.org/foundation