2009 Kettering-Oakwood MLK Breakfast Speaker
Pastor Robert E. Jones
Collge Hill Community Church
Pastor Robert E. Jones is senior pastor at College Hill Community Church, Presbyterian (USA), where he has been providing pastoral leadership for more than 30 years.
Pastor Jones was born and grew up in North Carolina. He received an undergraduate degree from Huston-Tillotson College in Austin, Texas. He earned Masters of Divinity and Masters of Sacred Theology degrees at Yale University Divinity School where he also served for five years as Assistant Professor of Practical Theology.
Arriving in Dayton in 1977, Pastor Jones served half time as Associate Pastor of College Hill Community Church and half time as an Associate Minister to the Southwest Ohio Association of the United Church of Christ. In 1982, he joined the faculty at United Theological Seminary (UTS) where he taught urban ministry and directed the Seminary’s Urban Program for 1982 to 1991. In 1994, Pastor Jones received a Doctorate of Ministry from UTS.
He has served on the Dayton Northwest Priority Board, the Dayton Police Advisory Board, the Board of the Ohio Council of Churches, and as chaplain in the Montgomery County Jail. He helped establish Habitat for Humanity in Dayton and organized the Interfaith Ministers for Reconciliation.
Pastor Jones continues to serve on committees and boards for many area interfaith and community organizations, including the Ohio Council of Churches, the Interfaith Ministers for Reconciliation, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the Northwest Clergy Association, the Dayton Human Relations Council, the Public Policy Board of the United Way, the Dayton Dialogue on Race Relations, the Presbytery of the Miami Valley, and the Southwest Ohio-Northern Kentucky Association of the United Church of Christ.
He has received numerous local and national awards, including the Liberty Bell Award for Outstanding Community Service from the Dayton Bar Association and the The James E. Stamp Award from the United Negro College Fund.
Pastor Jones has travelled throughout Africa, South America, and Europe, as well as to Korea and Japan.
He and his wife Karen Jones have a son, Darrell Jones.