Dr. Robert Boyd Jones of Wilmington, North Carolina passed away on October 9, 2017.

He was born on November 10, 1938 in Richmond, Virginia to the Rev. Dr. James Archibald Jones and Mary McAfee Boyd Jones. He spent most of his childhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his father was a Presbyterian minister at Myers Park Presbyterian Church. He attended both Myers Park High School in Charlotte and The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a rising senior in high school in Charlotte, he moved to Richmond, Virginia, where his father was installed as President of Union Theological Seminary. While living there, he graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School.

After high school, he returned to North Carolina and graduated from Davidson College in 1960. In 1964 he graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. In addition to having spent many summers at Wrightsville Beach with his family during his childhood years, he served as an extern at James Walker Memorial Hospital in Wilmington. At that time, he was introduced to and had the honor of working with several pioneers of the Wilmington medical community. After graduating from medical school, Dr. Jones was a surgical resident at the Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. He then served in the United States Navy from 1966-1969 as a Lieutenant Commander, and was a flight surgeon at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute at Pensacola, Florida, and Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

After his military service, Dr. Jones returned to New York to complete his residency in ear, nose and throat medicine at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital. In 1972, he returned to Wilmington with his family and established the ENT practice of Callaway, Jones & Fulk with his partners Doctors S. Clayton Callaway and Robert V. Fulk. This practice is now known as Wilmington Ear Nose & Throat Associates. During his medical career, Dr. Jones served as Chief of Staff at both Babies Hospital and Cape Fear Memorial Hospital and was also Chief of Surgery at New Hanover Regional Medical Center (NHRMC), then known as New Hanover Memorial Hospital. Most recently he served on the NHRMC committee for its 50th anniversary celebration which culminated in the installation of the “Circle of Life” sculpture in front of the hospital. He was a Fellow of the American College of Surgery and served as President of the New Hanover County Medical Society.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years Rebecca Lynn Bruce and their three children, Rebecca Jones Westendorff, PA-C, (and her husband Mark Westendorff), Robert B. Jones, Jr., (and his wife Rachel Z. Jones, M.D.), and Kelley Bruce Jones (and his wife Kathleen Healey Jones, PA-C), and five granddaughters, Mary Charlotte Westendorff, Genevieve McNair Jones, Lucy McAfee Jones, Eloise McAfee Jones, and Virginia Kelley Jones, all of Wilmington.

He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and served as a Deacon and member of the Session. Inspired by the experiences of his father from mission trips to Africa in the 50s and 60s, in 1995, Dr. Jones joined other Wilmington physicians in participating in medical mission trips to Leogane, Haiti, and continued supporting mission trips which provided medical care and other aide to Haiti for the next 22 years. While in Haiti in 1997, Dr. Jones met Edvy Durandice, a Haitian diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Dr. Jones brought Edvy to Wilmington where he lived with the Jones family for six months while undergoing successful treatment.

Dr. Jones had many interests, including golf, hunting, and cooking. He loved fine wine and food. He was also an avid reader, regularly poring over several newspapers cover-to-cover on a daily basis, completing the New York Times crossword puzzle. In ink. As a result, he enjoyed discussing varied topics with his family and many friends including medicine, science, travel, politics, foreign affairs, the arts, music and literature. He was a member of the Cape Fear Country Club, the Surf Club, the Carolina Yacht Club and L’Arioso German Club. Dr. Jones was a devoted husband, supportive and loving father and grandfather, and a fervent supporter of everything Virginia, including his University of Virginia Cavaliers, whom he supported much to the consternation of his many Tarheel and Blue Devil friends.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the First Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, North Carolina or to Haiti Reforestation Partnership, Post Office Box 99165, Raleigh, North Carolina 27614-99165, a sustainable agricultural development and reforestation program in Haiti.