Spring 2008 issue of Terry Magazine - (Page 42)

“Some people can’t disengage from their notepad or their iPod — if they do, they lose their train of thought. Steve’s not like that. He’s so knowledgeable about the issues. He brings both data analysis and concern for people to every discussion.” — Terry economics professor David Mustard is trying to solve — and, in turn, housing is just one of the pie pieces in the overall anti-poverty initiative. As the January meeting drew to a close, Jones, as he typically does in these kinds of situations, tried to bring the two sides of the housing discussion closer together by employing the listening and mediation skills he employs in court. “I don’t think anybody’s talking about taking people out of offices in the neighborhoods where they’re currently at,” said Jones with a smile. “The [comprehensive housing center] recommendation is talking about having one coordinated [housing] service.” Steve Jones is listed as the volunteer chairman of the OneAthens Initiative. But no one in his right mind would have volunteered to serve as the local poverty czar when, in Jones’ case, he already spends 60 hours a week hearing and preparing for court cases. “I was drafted,” Jones concedes. “My first response to Heidi Davison and Pat Allen was, ‘I don’t have time to do this with my judging responsibilities and all the other organizations I belong to.’” Jones’ public service commitment to Clarke County dates back to sixth grade when he was chosen to be a safety patrol. “It’s the first time I really felt accepted,” he recalls. He was elected battalion commander of his ROTC unit at Cedar Shoals High School, and people in the Athens community have been looking to him for leadership ever since. He enrolled at UGA, thinking he was destined to lead a quiet, private existence as an accountant. But Terry professor Bob Gatewood got him excited about management and that became his B-school major. He remained in Athens after graduation, serving as director of the Child Support Recovery Unit, where he developed an interest in law. He received his J.D. from UGA in 1987 and was an assistant district attorney and a municipal court judge before being appointed to the Superior Court of the Western Circuit in 1995. Jones has a long list of community commitments outside the courtroom — including service on 10 different boards — and Mayor Davison conceded that he already had his hands full. But former banker Pat Allen, who is now UGA’s community affairs director, wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Steve Jones is probably the busiest person I know,” says Allen. “But we knew he was also the perfect person for a job this large, so we decided to go ask him anyway.” Allen knows something about spreading yourself too thin, having served as chair of the Athens-Clarke County Unification Commission when he was president of the C&S Bank and unification efforts had failed numerous times before. “The unification effort succeeded, to a large degree, because Joe Whorton and his colleagues at UGA’s Institute for Community and Area Development — which later became part of UGA’s Fanning Institute — developed a completely different approach,” says Allen, who played the Fanning card in his approach to Jones. “When we asked Steve to chair the anti-poverty initiative, I told him that the PPA organizing committee had already gotten Joe Whorton and the Fanning Institute to sign on to help.” Allen wasn’t really surprised that Jones agreed to take on a giant adversary like poverty. “What amazes me about Steve,” says Allen, “is the extent of his personal involvement in any group he devotes time to. I can’t think of another person in this town who is as looked up to as Steve Jones.” The 51-year-old jurist may have been initially reluctant to take on another pro bono cause, but this one quickly occupied a special place in both his heart and his DayTimer. “Other than court, this anti-poverty initiative has been the main focus of my life for the past two and a half years,” says Jones. “And it will probably follow me to my grave because it is an all-consuming passion of mine.” The roots of poverty in Athens-Clarke County are visible nearly everywhere, says Jones, but so are long-standing efforts to When Jones was asked to chair Athens’ new anti-poverty initiative, one of the factors that convinced him to say yes was that Joe Whorton (below, at right) and UGA’s Fanning Institute would contribute leadership and assistance to the cause — just as they had at a crucial time during the Athens-Clarke County unification process. jasoN thrasher 42 • Spring 2008 Terry College of BuSineSS

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Terry School of Business - Spring 2008

Terry School of Business - Spring 2008 Contents Quick Bites Research & Innovation Gatherings Best CEO in America An Unlikely Rock Star Fire & Flavor Beyond the Bench Terry Memo Economic Scorekeeper Class Notes

Terry School of Business - Spring 2008

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