John M. “Jack” Jones, the attorney who assisted James W. Rouse in acquiring the Howard County farmland that became Columbia, died Aug. 10 of undetermined causes, family members said, at Broadmead Retirement Community in Hunt Valley.
The former Riderwood resident was 95.
“Jack was a fine lawyer and one of the best that you’ll ever find,” said former Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of state Court of Appeals, now the Supreme Court of Maryland, who was hired by Mr. Jones at what was then Piper and Marbury, now DLA Piper.
“He was a great mentor and believed in the power of mentoring in order to get to the right answer,” said George P. Stamas who worked with Mr. Jones at Piper.
John Martin Jones Jr. son of Dr. John M. Jones Sr. a chiropractor, and Nannalee Jones, a hotel manager, was born in Baltimore and raised on Greenmount Avenue.
After graduating from Friends School of Baltimore in 1947, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1951 from the University of Maryland and his law degree in 1953.
He joined Piper and Marbury in 1954.
From 1959 to 1960, he was an assistant Maryland attorney general before returning to Piper in 1960.
“His basic legal practice was that of a real estate lawyer,” said Mark Pollack, who was hired at Piper by Mr. Jones. “He was my mentor and the most delightful lawyer to work with and he was a great negotiator.”
One of the capstones of his career was working with developer James W. Rouse in the early 1960s to acquire the Howard County farmland that became today’s Columbia.
Frustrated by three landowners — identified by Rouse aides as the “Three Bears” — who held 1,000, 900 and 890 acres that were key to the project, Mr. Rouse was worried if word leaked out to owners of smaller parcels, the $1500 per acre price he was offering might rise. He turned to a “lanky young lawyer to help solve the riddle and direct the buying campaign,” wrote Gurney Breckenfield in “Columbia And The New Cities.”
Mr. Jones made the decision to avoid the Three Bears initially while purchasing other parcels of land.
Isidore Gudelsky held the key parcel of 1000 acres, which would become Columbia’s town center, shopping district and lake site, and was asking $5 million for it.
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Mr. Jones agreed to meet Mr. Gudelsky at what was then Friendship Airport before he boarded a flight.
With the clock ticking, Mr. Gudelsky agreed to accept Mr. Jones’ offer of $3 million. “This was a critical piece of the deal and Jack cornered him at the airport and wrote the terms of the sale on a napkin,” Mr. Pollack said.
In 1989, Mr. Jones purchased a controlling interest in Baltimore Contractors Inc. and became president, CEO and board chairman.
A world traveler, he was a voracious reader of British history, philosophy and theology — particularly Buddhism.
“He was a great storyteller who could make anything come to life,” said his stepdaughter, Martha Nesbitt Turner, of Baltimore.
Services are private.
Mr. Jones is survived by his wife of 55 years, Dayle F. Nesbitt, president of the board of Baltimore Choral Arts; two sons, David M. Jones, of Warwick, Rhode Island, and Jeffrey W.A. Jones, of St. Augustine, Florida; a daughter, Kelly A. Jones, of Tallahassee, Florida; two stepsons, William F. “Bill” Nesbitt, of Riderwood, and H. Scott Nesbitt, of Cincinnati; 14 grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and two nephews. His daughter, Cathleen Celeste Jones died in 2005.
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