"Boz": The Life of Ralph Boswell Jones (1897 - 1976)

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Conclusion

Ralph Boswell Jones could be kind or unfriendly, loving or sarcastic, generous or distant. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on one’s perspective), his emotions seldom bubbled forth. Throughout his life, Ralph Jones generally withheld feelings, even thoughts, from his family. For example, Marjorie Zimmerlin recalls, “I never knew anything about his first family. Somehow, the subject never came up.” It seems strange that the subject of his marriage to Dorothy and his first family—a subject spanning over three decades of his life—“never came up”. For whatever reason, Ralph remained a very private person.

Ralph’s aloofness and seeming indifference may have been (using today’s terminology) “coping mechanisms” by which he endured losses—of his father and brother, his aspirations for a medical career, his business goals, his marriage expectations. Later in life, apparently enjoying new compatibility with his second wife and greater freedom from familial responsibilities, Boz frequently gave vent to generous impulses, at times laying aside his aloof demeanor.

He struggled through difficult times. Throughout high school Ralph lived with the threat of world war, and eventually became a participant in the conflict. Pneumonia—an illness that modern-day medicine might have easily repulsed—killed his father. His only brother died tragically at a young age. Financial hardship hovered in the background of Ralph’s adulthood as he worked for firms that struggled to survive. Finally, he endured a crippling loss of circulation that lead to amputation and death.

Even so, his life was not all gloom. Ralph seems to have derived satisfaction from his work. He brought great organizational skills to bear on a dwindling church, reviving its interest in choral music and increasing its drawing power. A symphony orchestra, which he founded and conducted for many years, brought pleasure to his community through his love of music. And Ralph provided for his family, year after year “bringing home the bacon” when jobs were scarce and resources few.

Neither fully saint nor fully sinner, Ralph Boswell Jones was, in many respects, like all of us.

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