Ron Jones, 48; Inventor and Entrepreneur Led SongPro

Ron Jones, co-founder and chairman of the Los Angeles-based SongPro Inc., the maker of a computer device he invented that turns Nintendo’s Game Boy into a digital audio and video player, has died. He was 48.

Jones, whose company is the first African American-owned portable digital multimedia device manufacturer, died of gastric cancer Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Jones -- who had developed a way to reprogram inkjet printers to enable desktop computers to produce silk-screen quality printing, among other innovations -- came up with the idea for transforming Nintendo’s Game Boy into a portable music player in 1999.

But six months after forming what was then called SongBoy.com with business development professional Mark Bush in early 2000, the entrepreneurs became the focus of media attention after Nintendo of America Inc., denying their request to become a Nintendo licensee, filed a lawsuit for infringement of its intellectual property rights.

“You can go to school to learn how to play the corporate game, but the powers that be try to stop you at every turn,” Jones said at the time.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose Rainbow/PUSH Coalition promotes opportunities for minorities, became involved on behalf of Jones and Bush and helped bring the two sides together for a meeting.

In August 2000, the companies reached a settlement, in which Jones and Bush agreed to change the company and product’s name and Nintendo granted them a license.

The renamed SongPro Inc. began selling its device in December 2002.

“Ron was the kind of guy who was just completely innovative,” Bush told The Times Friday.

“He was always coming up with ideas to enhance something and make things better,” Bush said.

A South-Central Los Angeles native, Jones moved to Pacific Grove, Calif., at the age of 12.

Jones studied engineering at Monterey Peninsula College and San Jose State before dropping out to work for Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Data General Corp.

In the mid-1980s, he founded Colossal Graphics, a Palo Alto-based large-format printing and desktop publishing company.

Nine years later, the trade publication Micro Publishing News named him Innovator of the Decade for his advances in large-format printing.

Jones, whose other inventions include electronic feeders for fish and other animals, was recognized as the 1989 Minority Entrepreneur of the Year by the New York Interracial Council for Business Opportunity and the 1997 National Black Engineer by the Northern California Council of Black Professional Engineers.

He is survived by his father, William; his grandmother, Alberta Martin; brothers Michel, Gregory and Rodney; and sisters Deborah Mills, Joyce, Loretta Jones-Walker, Angela Phillips, Jackeline, and Mishel Walker.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. today at Spaulding Mortuary, 3045 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles.