Conservationist/state leader, Clifford L. Jones, dies

Jones was former member of The Nature Conservancy's board of trustees

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA — May 8, 2008 — Clifford L. Jones, a long-time friend and former trustee of The Nature Conservancy, died Tuesday.

The Mechanicsburg resident, who was born Dec. 31, 1927 in Sharpsville, had a long career in conservation, government and politics.

He was a former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, a precursor to today’s departments of environmental protection, and conservation and natural resources; secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce; secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry; and chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

Jones also was president of Pennsylvanians for Effective Government, transition president for the Capital Region Economic Development Corporation and transition executive director of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. He retired as president of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

He served on the boards of the Conservancy, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association, Pennsylvania Wild Resources Conservation Fund, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Pennsylvania Wildlife Federation, and Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation. He also was active with Audubon Pennsylvania and Appalachian Audubon Society.

Jones worked for the Boy Scouts of America in New Castle and Can Do Industrial Development Group of Hazelton before moving to state government in Harrisburg in 1963. Beginning as deputy secretary of the Department of Commerce under Gov. William Scranton, he eventually served six governors.

He also was chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party; helped to found the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, and Harrisburg International Airport; and was part of a group investigating rail commuting in central Pennsylvania.

He was awarded three honorary doctoral degrees, one each from his alma mater Westminster College, Thiel College and Moravian College.

An avid birder, Jones had sighted and recorded 714 species on his life-list for North America, and 3,800 on his worldwide life-list. He had birded in 55 counties, 30 states and eight Canadian provinces. In addition, he had a life-list of mammal sightings that included 350 species worldwide.

He leaves his wife, Carol; children and grandchildren.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.