Shelley and Tom Jones, longtime educators and service-minded community members, have been selected as the Alexis de Tocqueville Society of United Way of West Alabama’s family of the year.
Tom was elected posthumously, having died in 2017. Shelley Jones will receive the honor at the society’s spring luncheon Tuesday, at the home of Mary Virginia and Bill Best.
Each year, the society’s leadership makes nominations, then passes those to a selection committee to make the choice.
“It’s always a tough decision,” said Jackie Wuska, president and CEO of the United Way of West Alabama, which for more than 75 years has helped raise funds for more than two dozen area service organizations, “because there are so many worthy possibilities.”
Both Joneses were longtime forces in education, Shelley as first a teacher, then as principal of Woodland Forrest Elementary for 20 years, and Tom as a professor and later dean at the University of Alabama School of Law. Both worked tirelessly for dozens of service groups and organizations.
“Everybody in our community recognizes their talents, their generous spirit and vision,” Wuska said, “so they’ve been asked to serve with every non-profit in town. They’ve both made a strong difference in our community, for many years.”
Shelley Jones shouldered the task as United Way campaign chair for 2020, just as the pandemic’s effects were beginning to hammer the economy, a position she occupied with “grace and empathy,” Wuska said. Though personal finances…
