Melvin Jones

Believing in the power of cooperative altruism, Melvin Jones helped shape Lions Club International into the largest network of services clubs in the world. The organization is committed to assisting the visually impaired and supporting sight conservation worldwide. Using the motto, "We Serve," Lions Clubs seek to improve the lives of the needy and offer young people the chance to catch the spirit of service.

"You can't get very far until you start doing something for somebody else..."

— Melvin Jones

Born: January 13, 1879 Fort Thomas, Arizona
Died: June 1, 1961 Flossmoor, Illinois

In 1917, Melvin Jones, a Chicago businessman, conceived the idea of business professionals pooling their energy, talent, and resources toward the service of others with an objective of effecting great change in their communities. Today, the organization he founded, the International Association of Lions Clubs, commonly referred to as Lions Clubs, is the largest network of service clubs in the world.

Lions Clubs have committed themselves to a number of humanitarian endeavors. The organization is perhaps best known for its commitment to improve the quality of life of the blind and visually impaired, a tradition that began as a challenge issued by Helen Keller at the Lions Clubs' 1925 convention. Lions Clubs also promote volunteerism in young people through their Youth Outreach Program and fund humanitarian service projects throughout the world through it's Lions Club International Foundation. Additionally, Lions Clubs International is the largest non-governmental organization associated with the United Nations through its SightFirst program, which was established to rid the world of preventable and reversible blindness.

Jones was born on January 13, 1879 at Fort Thomas, Arizona, where his father, a U.S. Army captain, commanded a troop of scouts under General Nelson Miles, the famed Indian fighter. With the family moving frequently during his boyhood, Jones assembled a patchwork education which included courses at Union Business College and, when his family moved to Quincy, Illinois, in 1886, law courses at Chaddock College.

In his early twenties, Jones settled in Chicago where he joined an insurance agency, Johnson & Higgins. In 1909, he married professional golfer, Rose Amanda Freeman, eventual winner of the 1925 National Women's Open Golf title. By 1913, young Jones found himself sole owner of the Melvin Jones Insurance Agency.

The highly intelligent and successful young businessman was soon invited to join the Business Circle of Chicago, which like many similar businessmen's clubs around the country, was composed of community leaders involved in various types of trade and commerce. The group met weekly for the sole purpose of advancing their own business interests. According to one club member, the Business Circle's motto was, "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." Jones felt privileged to be invited, and enthusiastically accepted, introducing new ideas and using his sales skills to build the Business Circle's membership.

In 1915, Jones was elected secretary of the organization. It was in this post that he first began to consider what the 200 successful businessmen in the Business Circle could do if they pooled their intelligence, talent, and ambition to improve their communities. A year later, Jones began to contact other business clubs throughout the country to solicit support for his notion of a widespread network of service clubs. Replies to Jones' correspondence revealed great enthusiasm for his idea.

On June 7, 1917, 20 delegates from 27 business clubs throughout the U.S. met in Chicago and agreed to form an association of business clubs committed to community service. The group adopted the name of one of the attending clubs, the Association of Lions Clubs. Later that year, Jones was elected Acting Secretary. In helping to create the group's constitution, he insisted, "no club shall hold out as one of its objects, financial benefits to its members." It was clear that the club had moved far from the original purpose of the Business Circle.

Although Jones continued his insurance agency business in Chicago until 1926, it had by then long since become little more than a sideline to his main business of promoting the expansion of the Lions Clubs. Although actively engaged in Lions Clubs' business, Jones was not well compensated. At the 1918 convention, the organization's financial statements revealed that Jones, the Secretary-Treasurer, had received only $200 in salary for 11 months of labor.

In the 1920s, the Lions Clubs became an international organization with the chartering of clubs in many foreign countries. By 1927, 1,183 Lions clubs with 60,000 club members were performing charitable services in communities all over the world.

Jones accrued many honors over the course of his Lions career. In 1932, President Herbert Hoover named Jones as one of a select group of business executives invited to attend a White House conference to discuss economic problems. In 1939, Jones received the National Merit Order of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes from the Cuban government. In 1958, the International Board of Directors conferred upon Jones the title of Secretary-General of Lions International for life.

Jones died on June 1, 1961 at the age of 82 at his home in Flossmoor, Illinois. His wake was attended by thousands of Lions members, civil leaders, and government dignitaries, who recognized they were paying their respects to a man who had recast the tone that business organizations had taken at the turn of the century from one of mercenary individualism to one of cooperative altruism.

Today, Lions Clubs sponsor free eye screening programs using mobile eye clinics, conduct eye surgery camps where cataract surgeries are performed at no charge for those in need, and fund the collection of old eye glasses for distribution to the needy.

The Lions Clubs remain a consultant to the UN and it was the UN, together with the World Health Organization, that called upon Lions Clubs to raise funds for an international program of sight conservation. In 1990, the Clubs launched a $140 million global initiative, the SightFirst program, which is committed to ridding the world of preventable and reversible blindness. Among its many achievements are the funding of 300,000 cataract surgeries overseas.

Today, 1.35 million members in more than 43,000 clubs in 195 countries and geographical areas are working, under the Lions Clubs' motto "We Serve," to improve the lives of the needy. Lions Clubs International have established a $140 million global initiative to rid the world of preventable and reversible blindness. They also run a comprehensive program that challenges young people to learn, to achieve, and to serve.

Jones started out with a mission to build an organization to facilitate and encourage volunteerism. The organization developed into the Lions Clubs International Foundation and it continues today to serve people around the world, fulfilling the goals of its founder.


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