The Helen DeVitt Jones Graduate Fellowship Endowment was established in 2003 from the generous donation from the Helen Jones Foundation. Fellowships are available for graduate students in the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources. The Helen Jones Fellows will be recruited and selected from the most outstanding graduate students available. The will be expected to participate in volunteer projects that will benefit the community, region, and/or agricultural and natural resource industry.

Helen DeVitt Jones was a noted philanthropist whose generosity greatly enriched the fine arts, culture and education of Lubbock and other areas of the state.
Jones was born Dec. 7, 1899, in Fort Worth, the third of four children of David M. and Florence Ada (Bailey) DeVitt. As a young child, her family split time between their homes in Fort Worth and West Texas, specifically, the Mallet Ranch.
Her family spent about six months of the year on the ranch to secure their claim to the land, according to information at the Southwest Collection. The family made the trek from Fort Worth to the ranch by train to Big Spring and then from there by wagon on to the Mallet.
David DeVitt and Jon Scharbauer bought the Mallet brand from D.P Atwood in 1885 and formed the Mallet Cattle Company, according to "The Handbook of Texas Online," a joint project of The General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association. By 1936, the ranch was running some 3,000 cattle on 53,138 acres, according to "The Handbook of Texas Online."
Once Jones started to school, the trips to her father's cattle ranch in West Texas decreased. She completed schooling in Fort Worth and then attended Texas Christian University for a year in 1917 before heading to the University of California, where she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English in 1921. Four years later, Jones married Lee Secrest, a civil engineer who is credited with platting the town of Morton. The couple moved to California, where they lived until their divorce in 1932. They had one daughter, Dorothy.Jones returned to Lubbock, where she met and married Tom Jones in 1942. He was a real estate agent who had come to the city during the oil boom, according to Southwest Collection files. They too split their time among homes in Lubbock, California, Colorado and Dallas. After his death in 1955, Jones returned to Lubbock to support her sister, Christine, who upon their father's death in 1934, had assumed management of the Mallet Ranch.
Upon returning to the South Plains, Jones began supporting various charitable organizations and causes, beginning with Texas Tech. Her contributions to Tech helped build the university's museums, with the DeVitt Wing dedicated in honor of her parents in 1974. Two years earlier, Jones' sister had established the CH Foundation with moneys from their father's estate. In 1984, Jones followed by forming the Helen Jones Foundation. Her daughter also established a charitable fund, the Plum Foundation in California.
From 1975 to 1988, Jones actively supported a number of organizations aside from Tech. Those included the Lubbock Area Foundation, The Salvation Army, Cross and Flame Society of Methodist Hospital, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, United Way, Lubbock Symphony, South Plains Food Bank, Lubbock Women's Study Group, South Plains College, Boy Scouts of America and Lubbock Independent School District.

Jones passed away in September 1997.

Contact

Alex Yack
Alex.Yack@ttu.edu
Senior Director of Development
806.742.2802

Matt Williams
matt.williams@ttu.edu
Associate Director of Development
806.742.2802

Tanner Rex
tanner.rex@ttu.edu
Assistant Director of Development
806.742.2802