May 11, 2004--Garry Davis Jones, 51, of Sugar Land, Texas, died May 6, at The Methodist Hospital in Houston.

He received his doctorate in geology from UD in 1982.

Born in Paterson, N.J., he was raised in Wayne, N.J. He earned a bachelor of science degree in geology from Catawba College in Catawba, N.C., and a master’s degree from Western Washington State College in Bellingham, before completing his doctoral studies at UD. His doctoral dissertation focused on Eocene micropaleontology of the North Carolina Coastal Plain.

Dr. Jones spent his career as a biostratigrapher for Unocal in Brea, Calif.; Lafayette, La.; and Sugar Land. He was an adjunct professor in the Earth science department of Rice University for the last three years and a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists.

Dr. Jones also was a member of the North American Micropaleontology Section of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists’ Society for Sedimentary Geology and served as its president in 2000. As a part of NAMS, he was the organizer of an international conference on geology and microfossils, scheduled at Rice University in March 2005.

In 1983, he published “Foraminiferal Biostratigraphy and Depositional History of the middle Eocene Rocks of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina,” a special publication of the North Carolina Geological Survey.

It was Dr. Jones’ devotion to science that prompted him to be the first patient in the United States to receive the implant of an Impella heart pump, developed by Impella CardioSystems of Germany, shortly before his death.

He was an avid golf enthusiast, and at the age of 8, he won his first contest, the local community hole-in-one competition, which was open to all ages. He worked as an assistant to the pro at the Packanack Lake Golf Club as a young man and was the captain of his golf team at Catawba College.

Dr. Jones was a naturalist, always identifying plants, flowers and animals.

He is survived by his wife, Mary R. Jones; two daughters, Callie and Maggie, all of Sugar Land; a brother, Edward Jones of Brick, N.J.; and a sister, Diane Kahn of Basking Ridge, N.J.

A service in celebration of Dr. Jones’ life will be held at a future date.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Garry Jones Childrens’ Educational Fund, P.O. Box 17985, Sugar Land, TX 77496.