Bob Jones

  Bob Jones

It has been eight years since Bob Jones left the employ of The Borough as Pottstown Borough Manager. A retired Admiral in The U.S. Navy came to Town in a pivotal time in our history. Financial doom if not rune cast a dark shadow on the horizon. Bob surveyed the lay of the land, charted a new course, chose a new crew, took the wheel, and cast off into the future. Now eight years later, though times are very tough, fruits of his vision of a town surviving remain strong.

Jones by realizing the aptitude and attitude of his assistant manager, Dave Forrest, untied his hands which allowed Dave to aggressively pursue financial grants that are apparent today.

Growing up in New England's tobacco country Bob keeps a memento of this heritage, the steel head of a specialized spear point. The steel point was attached to a wooden shaft which allowed the user to thrust the spear through the mass at the base of a mature tobacco plant impaling it on the shaft. When the shaft was full of green plants it was detached from the point and the shaft full of tobacco plants was hung in a drying barn so the tobacco could cure.

Bob Jones and I spoke quite often about his youth and about some of his exploits at sea. Throughout Man's history the story or the tale has been recorded for posterity. The poem has been used also to record in a synthesized way. With the poem poets try to join the mind with the heart so a tug from emotion surfaces. In doing so we try to describe and define, record a story, or name something that can live beyond the immediate which should be left for reporters of news to tell of today's happenings.

  Ronald C. Downie