Channel Drive resident honored for 64 years in Rotary

For more than two-thirds of his life, Doug Jones has been a Rotarian.

The 95-year-old Channel Drive resident joined Rotary when he was 31. He has been a Rotarian longer than the 52 years he was married to his late wife Ruth and almost, but not quite, longer than he has been a father.

"Rotary has been a way of life," Jones told an appreciative crowd at the Dec. 18 La Conner Rotary Christmas party, as his 64 years with the service club were celebrated.

The club has been a constant throughout his varied career, which ranged from delivering milk to owning a hardware store in Darrington to serving as deputy administrator of the Arlington airport. Along the way, he belonged to three Rotary chapters, transferring to La Conner Rotary in the 1990s.

While part of the Lynnwood Rotary club, he and long-time "frienemy" Don Bakken helped start the Lynnwood Rotary International Air Fair in 1969. During its 24 years at Paine Field, the fair drew hundreds of thousands of spectators and netted more than $1.5 million for Rotary grants and scholarships.

It was a big job for a small Rotary Club, but Jones and Bakken – also later a La Conner Rotary member – were committed to its success. Jones used his political contacts with Governor Dan Evans and Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson to book the Navy Blue Angels, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the Canadian Snow Birds. The Goodyear blimp was often on the roster.

Even with all those balls in the air, he and his family found time to host seven Rotary exchange students from five countries, six months at a time.

He brought the same energy to the La Conner club when he and Ruth built their Channel Drive home.

"There wasn't anything I wasn't involved in," he said.

For the Smelt Derby, which ended in 2020, "he would go along Main Street calling on all the businesses to solicit gifts and put up posters," said daughter Kelley Jones. "Today many of those businesses still participate in the Rotary Auction."

On Derby day, he would set up a big coffee urn before heading outside to sell tickets or troubleshoot, so that volunteers could come in and warm up.

During tulip season, he drove south to sell flowers to the Arlington Rotary. He also built his own tulip booth at the corner of McLean and La Conner Whitney Roads. "Our then-tulip chairman thought it would be too hard to have a third location and that we could never staff it," Rotary President Connie Milliken remembers. "But when the season ended, his booth had sold more than either one in town."

That, says Milliken, is a good example of Jones' dedication and determination.

Not to mention the discipline of running your own business, having two kids and donating thousands and thousands of hours – and thousands of dollars – to Rotary. Jones is proud of every hour and every cent and especially proud of Rotary's women leaders.

Like all Rotary Clubs, the La Conner Rotary Club was a male-only group when it was chartered in 1945. In 1989, Rotary International changed its policy to admit qualified women. Today there are 300,000 women members, Jones reminded his Christmas party diners.

Milliken, one of those "qualified" women, oversees a club that gives away about $100,000 annually. Much of it goes to La Conner Schools as scholarships, clothes for the clothes closet, food for the food closet and support for the preschool and the Braves Club. As part of its focus on literacy, the club pays for a book a month for any child under five within the school district registered in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

Rotary is also involved in the development of La Conner's Waterfront Park and gives grants to groups like the Skagit River Poetry Festival, Children of the Valley and the Anacortes Family Center.

"All of our work is focused on the county, except for our international work in Honduras," Milliken says. Members record 50 to 90 volunteer hours at every Monday meeting as they live out the Rotary slogan, "Service above Self."

Jones has been to Guatemala and Honduras as part of that international work. "In a way, his influence extends around the world," says daughter Kelley.

His influence will also extend well beyond his 64 years of service, because like many of his fellow club members, Rotary is named in his will.

"Keeping Drama Alive in La Conner Schools" will be the topic at the January 15 La Conner Rotary meeting at 6 p.m. at O'Donnell's Restaurant on Highway 20.