Frankie T. Jones Sr. ’70: Building Relationships

Frankie T. Jones Sr. ’70, D.Min., has been many things over the years: a senior Air Force officer, a farmer, a senior pastor, a corporate executive, a strategic planning consultant and a business owner.

Jones and Justin Lewter of CAES harvest sweet potatoes at Jones’s farm recently.

In all of these roles, he has been a leader, helping his farm, the U.S. government, and various corporations thrive. One particular beneficiary has been his alma mater, N.C. A&T, and the Department of Animal Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, which has received several notable donations that Jones has steered their way, including a $300,000 donation from Michelin North America in 1999-2000 and a $24,000 donation of furniture from Rooms to Go in 2017, which also included a scholarship gift of $2,500 for five years.

Jones’s work with USDA’s deputy secretary of equal opportunity resulted in a $1.1 million contribution to A&T in 2015; he was also instrumental in encouraging John Deere to broaden its presence at A&T.

As a member of the grants committee of the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, Jones also guided and encouraged faculty in submitting grant proposals to the trust fund, the entity which distributes money from federal tobacco settlements. Several of those proposals have been awarded.

“I’m greatly indebted to A&T,” Jones said. “I was challenged there and nurtured by the staff, particularly Dr. Burleigh Webb and my advisor, Dr. Alfreda Webb. They did so much to reach out, nurture and bring along students who could otherwise have been discouraged and left behind, myself included. I benefitted very significantly from the leadership of others, and now I want to reach out and encourage students coming behind me.”

Phoenix One Farms, owned by Frankie T. Jones, D.Min., has hosted many CAES students and faculty.

A graduate of Wayne State University, Duke University, Shaw University and Virginia University-Lynchburg, in addition to A&T, Jones has also completed post-doctoral studies at The Oxford Graduate School, and recently completed the Advanced Director’s Finance Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Interested in helping students succeed, Jones remains connected to all of them.

But it is in his unofficial role as CAES recruiter, advisor and benefactor that Jones may have his biggest impact. Jones has recruited students, steered corporate giving to the university and served on numerous boards and panels.

“I have actually put students in my car and taken them to colleges around the state, including N.C. A&T,” he said. “I wanted them to see how competitive A&T is now. When you come on campus, you just beam with pride as you see the iconic structures, the modern buildings, the evidence of dynamic leadership.”

Born and raised on a farm in Alamance County – land which his family formerly sharecropped along with four other families, but which he now owns – Jones enrolled as an animal sciences student in the late 1960s. He participated in the department’s livestock judging team, which won national championships from 1967-70, and in the ROTC program, all while working 40-hour weeks at Wesley Long Community Hospital to help pay his way after the passing of his father shortly before his freshman year. He was also a recipient of a Ford Foundation Fellowship, which supports diversity in the sciences, engineering and medicine.

After graduation, Jones enrolled at Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine with the intention of becoming a veterinarian, but while there, he – a commissioned officer from his days in A&T’s ROTC program – was called to active duty in the Air Force during the Vietnam conflict. While on the Air Force base in Frankfurt, Germany, Jones earned a master’s in educational sociology and psychology through Wayne State University.

While in the Air Force, Jones was selected by the Secretary of the Air Force as one of 10 officers to develop the branch’s first race relations policies and procedures.

“It was the height of the Vietnam war, and at the same time, we were having a lot of racial strife at our installations, both abroad and in the U.S.” Jones said. The Air Force provided Jones with numerous leadership opportunities, including roles as the executive officer of the 76th Airlift Division at Andrews Air Force Base, which has responsibility for Air Force One and US Presidential Airlift Support. While assigned to the Pentagon, Jones served as director of all Air Force family-related matters and orchestrated the establishment of 123 Family Support Centers on Air Force installations throughout the free world. He also selected as Air Force personnel officer of the year during his Pentagon tenure.

In the course of his 20 years of service, Jones was awarded the Department of Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and was the six-time recipient of the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal. He rose to the rank of colonel (sel) and was an operational commander of support troops during the Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Just Cause conflicts.

Although Jones was selected as an Air Force outstanding young officer of the year and commander of the year, he had other aspirations, and eventually, Jones left the military to study theology at Duke University and Shaw University. But he used his leadership training from the Air Force, along with his “life lessons” from the farm and his education at A&T, to join corporate America, becoming president of B&C Associates, a public relations company which focused on corporate social responsibility, working with companies to raise awareness in building progressive communities.

One of the key focuses was on supporting the education and training provided by colleges and universities located in the marketplaces of the companies.

“That’s how we were able to build relationships between Michelin and N.C. A&T, which turned out to be a very significant partnership,” he said. “I wanted to see that company develop a more meaningful relationship with Historically Black Colleges and Universities in particular.”

He later launched his own company, Phoenix One Enterprises, which concentrates on corporate social responsibility, reputation management, strategic philanthropy, labor relations, crisis management, and marketing and community relation issues.  He has provided consulting services to a myriad of high-profile corporations nationally and internationally, and such institutions and nonprofit organizations as Rooms To Go Inc., General Motors, FDIC, Michelin North America, Sara Lee, Sprint, Freddie Mac, The American Legion, Wake Forest Medical School, UAW and the American Red Cross. Jones also has been heavily involved in proactive development work in Nigeria, South Africa and France.

At the same time, Jones wanted to expand his farming operation. Returning to the farm on which he grew up, he bought pieces of land from relatives and others to assemble more than 400 acres into Phoenix One Farms, LLC.

“My passion was always tied to my major and to the farm,” he said. “I’ve invested quite a lot in it and I love rural life.”

There, he and his wife, Alease, a retired educator, farm Angus beef cattle, South African Boer goats, and St. Croix sheep. They also work to keep their organic farm’s practices innovative, employing such methods as reforestation and timber management, fresh water wells for livestock and rotational grazing and pasturing.

“Students from the CAES, USDA, and soil and water conservation experts from the state have all come to the farm to see our projects on many occasions,” Jones said.

Jones also is active in the Baptist church, and serves on the Human Rights Commission of the Baptist World Alliance, the largest organization of Baptist churches in the world. He recently returned from Zurich, Switzerland, where he attended a world summit.

Among his other significant contributions to the university, Jones and his wife have recruited numerous students, and helped graduates to be admitted to veterinary schools. Currently, an A&T graduate student is conducting funded research using the Jones’s sheep herds.

“Leadership and educational training go hand in hand,” he said. “One aspect of leadership is the responsibility to reach out and encourage others. I have always made it a point to assist others, as I was encouraged.

“It gives me great pride to see A&T excel,” he said. “In the past, many students went there because they had no other choice. Today, students go there by choice, and that’s a bold statement as to how competitively A&T is perceived, both nationally and internationally.”