Farmington Rotary Honors Retired North Principal

Farmington Rotary club members and Farmington school officials came together Tuesday at in Farmington Hills, to honor a man who helped give thousands of students a foundation for their careers. 

Retired principal Rick Jones was chosen to receive the club's Vocational Service Award, Rotarian Lynn Morgan said, because he embodies the club's values. Rotary encourages and fosters service, high ethical standards, and "the dignifying of each Rotarian's profession as an opportunity for service," he said.

Jones' humanitarian work in Mali, one of the world's poorest countries, and working with students at North and in Danbury, CT to build a school in the Sudan through Save the Children Foundation, fits with the Rotary's emphasis on establishing international peace and goodwill, Morgan added.

"It's really humbling to receive recognition for something you love doing, something that was a calling really," Jones said.

A member of North Farmington's fourth graduating class, he left Michigan for Florida, where he worked with his wife, Kathy, before coming back to Michigan and taking a teaching job at North. "So much of what I have and so much of who I am, I owe to Farmington Public Schools," Jones said.

He credited his former coach and now good friend Ron Holland and English teacher Mary Johnson with lighting the spark for his interest in education.

However, Jones added that his mother and father, who were also in the audience, "were my best teachers, and they continue to be. They encouraged me to find something to do in my life that matters."