Newport Beach educator made lasting impact
For more than half a century, Albert Jones built on his life experience to educate generations of Newport Beach elementary school students while operating his for-profit private school as a successful family business.
The 83-year-old founder, owner, teacher and longtime administrator of Carden Hall school left behind a legacy of integrity and kindness when he died Nov. 6 of, “old age and a life well-lived,” according to his son Doug Jones.
For 52 consecutive years since he co-founded Carden Hall in 1962, Albert Jones was there to open the building to the kindergarten through eighth-grade students. The curriculum is based on the alternative teaching methods developed by Mae Carden that is the foundation of more than 80 private institutions across the country.
Over the decades, Jones served as math teacher, PE teacher, coach and maintenance man. When Jones and his wife Jane bought out their partners in 1978, he took over as the school’s director, or principal, serving for more than 30 years in that capacity until he stepped back in 2010.
This school year he opened the doors in September as executive director before failing health forced him to step down.
“He was a stud. Bad to the bone,” Doug Jones said in describing his father, an all-city swimmer growing up in Long Beach, a lifeguard, surfer and merchant marine.
Jones served as a U.S. Naval officer on a destroyer during the Korean War before he was accepted and served with distinction in the Navy Special Forces, the earliest incarnation of what is now the Navy SEALs.
“He was a warrior and a gentle soul and that was his paradox,” the younger Jones added. “He could engage a 6-year-old in conversation as easily as he could anyone. He was just full of integrity and kindness.”
Albert met his wife Jane when he was in business school at Stanford. The couple bought their first and only family home in Newport Beach in 1961. They raised their son and daughter Christy in the same home Jane continues to live in.
The family business remains intact with Jane remaining in her longtime position as director of academics. Doug and Christy will administer as co-owners, although neither currently lives in Orange County.
The family will reunite the afternoon of Dec. 6 for a “Celebration of Life” on the Carden Hall campus in Newport Beach. Former students, faculty and friends are invited to attend in tribute.