Poet and retired school teacher Jack Jones reads one of his children's books at his home in Kamloops.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

The home of Kamloops writer and retired school teacher Jack Jones is bright and very tidy, aside from the papers and poetry collections strewn on his dining room table.

The few items he has in the quiet home overlooking the North Thompson River all have a special place and meaning, and tell of a long life filled with family, writing and adventure.

“Do you take cream in your tea?” he asks, setting down a tray of hot tea and scones with jam in amongst the papers.

It was a frosty, blue sky day on Jan. 24 when iNFOnews.ca stopped by to visit the wordsmith and longtime beloved school teacher.

A widower with a cat, Jones is spry mentally and physically for his 93 years. He is energetic, friendly and quick with a joke.

“She is not terribly talkative except at mealtimes, but we don’t have very interesting conversations,” he said of the cat while producing a cup covered with photos of his children and grandchildren.

“I’ll give you my favourite cup.” 

Beside the table is a shelving unit covered with more family photos and behind him on the wall, a photo of his late wife, Margaret who died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2021.

“My wife was an adventurous woman, we went all kinds of places together,” Jones said staring at the photo with a look of admiration. “She was also a dietician and I didn’t realize how lucky I was until later when I had to cook for myself.”

Born in England in 1931 during the depression, Jones’ career in education took him to several different countries. 

He served in the air force in Germany, found the love of his life and raised four kids, and taught French, English and poetry writing to countless students.

Ironically, the avid reader and writer started out in life with eye problems. 

“I was born with a lazy eye and bad vision, and back then there wasn’t corrective surgery for it,” he said, buttering a scone. “I remember every three months I got to go on a train to see a doctor where they’d freeze my eye and I’d get a toy if I was good.

“Every year I’d need a new pair of glasses.”

A member of the Anglican Church, Jones went through high school studying arts and religion. He then won a scholarship to an elite grammar school where he studied French and English poetry.

“Back then the poetry stopped with Wordsworth and Tennyson, there wasn’t 20th century poetry to study,” he said. “It was the same in Canada, it was all very traditional poetry from the 1800s.

“It’s only since the second world war that modern poetry in Canada has taken off, where you don’t have to have exactly the right number of beats.”

At the age of 18, Jones joined the Royal Air Force in Germany during the Cold War.

“After the Second World War the allies kept up the military so if you were 18 and a man, you had to go into the army, navy or air force for two years. I tried to get on an aircrew but failed because of my left eye, it still has only 20 per cent vision.”

Jones became an officer and after doing several courses in England, he took a boat and a train to a base in Germany where he learned to fire guns.

He fondly remembers riding his motorbike around Hamburg during those years.

When he was finished with his mandatory army service, Jones was sponsored by the army to do a one-year teaching course in Melbourne, Australia to become an elementary school teacher.

“Because I’d been in the air force, I was considered a mature student and only had to study for one year instead of two, and they paid me nearly 1,000 pounds to do the courses,” he said. “They were so short on teachers.”

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That same year, Jones met his wife Margaret on a tennis court and the pair fell in love.

“She was a very good tennis player. She walloped me and that should’ve been the end of our relationship,” he said with a laugh. “When I got home to where I was boarding, my friend asked if I’d done anything good for myself, meaning, did I meet a girl.

“I’d have to take two trains on a two-hour trip to where she was living and my friend said to forget it, two railway stations away is too far away for a girlfriend.

"I married this tennis player and he was my best man.”

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Jones taught at rural elementary schools while he studied in the evenings and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and English. Some of the school classes he taught had over 40 students in them.

“It was a different time, the kids were well behaved,” he said. “If I told a parent a kid hadn’t behaved, he’d get a bad time at home, I didn’t have to discipline.”

In 1968, a college friend who had moved to Kamloops phoned Jones to let him know a job teaching French was opening at a local school. Jones applied, and got the job.

He arrived in Canada with his wife and four children and they took a train ride across the country to Kamloops that took 3.5 days.

“The kids had a ball on that trip,” he said. “As we approached Kamloops in the night we could see city lights, it was a beautiful site, it was a small town in those days.”

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Jones taught at Kamloops Secondary School before leaving for France briefly to take a course in contemporary French culture, where he started writing poetry.

“I was 41 which is a bit old to start writing poetry and it’s a funny thing to read it now and realize how naive it was, but it was a beginning.” 

A member of the Canadian League of Poets for three decades, Jones has poems published in various collections.

He puts down his tea cup and walks over to a leather, vintage case on a chair, opening its buttons and pulling out a ceramic statue of a head that looks like him.

“This is my father-in-law’s medical bag from 1930,” he said. “When I was born, he was already a doctor and this was his bag.”

He begins to recite a poem he wrote about the ceramic head while holding up the bust. It was a gift from his daughter who made it in a high school art class.

“It’s a strange feeling, holding one’s head, even though it’s ceramic, in one’s hands,” he recited. The poem reflects on human vulnerability, and ends with tongue-in-cheek humour about the head being empty.

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In 1980, Jones took a year’s sabbatical from the school district and taught the appreciation of poetry at numerous schools, showing kids how to use different patterns for poetry.

School teachers chose the 40 most worthy poems out of hundreds and the school district printed them in a collection. He keeps the poetry collection, along with some sketches and illustrations from former students.

In 1985, the City of Kamloops and the Arts Council ran a contest to find a poet laureate for Kamloops. Poets submitted one poem of their own choice, one about a person and one about an event.

Jones won the position, which he held for three years, writing poems for famous visitors to the city including some members of the royal family and Rick Hanson.

“It was a job that paid $100 per year from the city and $100 per year from the arts council, generous hey?” 

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Jones has a lifelong passion for music, something he later shared with his wife.

“When I was growing up, my brother and I were both in the church choir,” he said. “One of my poems is about my voice breaking when I was 14 and the shock and loss of that, I love singing. They tried to make me a high tenor but it didn’t work so I became a straight tenor.”

Before moving to Kamloops, Jones and his wife were in the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic that had over 100 singers, and the pair sang in Anglican churches and choirs in Kamloops over the years.

Jones has four children, numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

“I’m so grateful, I’ve had such an adventurous life,” he said. “Now much of my social circle is a cat.”

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The Dodo is a children's book written by Kamloops retired teacher Jack Jones.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Former Kamloops resident Alex McGilvery is the owner of Celticfrog Publishing who has worked with Jones over the years to publish, print and sell copies of his work at local farmers' markets, including a children's book call The Dodo that can be purchased online.

“Jack is amazing, he’s been a teacher and poet for years and he is so much fun to work with because he's funny and has so many stories to tell,” McGilvery said.

He and Jones are currently working on publishing a book of Jones’ poetry to be sold at farmers' markets in Kamloops this spring as a fundraiser for a local choir.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Ainslie or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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