Had there been a shorter line that long-ago day, the Rev. Warren Jones might not have chosen journalism as a field of study, might have missed the birthing of the Peabody Awards, and wouldn’t be in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria today.
But Jones is there in New York, with his three children on an extended Father’s Day weekend, guests of the University of Georgia and the Peabody Awards Committee, for the electronic media’s most prestigious recognition.
When Jones went to Woodruff Hall to register for studies at the University of Georgia in 1939, “The shortest line was journalism school, so I got in that line.”
The story may be told with a twinkle in his eye, but Jones gets serious when he talks about the George Foster Peabody Awards, first awarded in 1941 (for radio programs broadcast the previous year). He was secretary of the first faculty committee of the Peabody Awards, and his hands opened the envelopes containing the very first submissions.
His reminiscences indicate he had at least an inkling of how important, how large and how prestigious the Peabody Awards would become.
In 1938, the National Association of Broadcasters appointed a committee to establish an award for radio.
“Lambdin Kay, general manager of WSB Radio, was enthusiastic about it and gave the idea to Dean John E. Drewry (then dean of the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia). That literally breathed life into it and brought it to fruition,” Jones said.
He said the first awards went to radio stations with a small listening audience, medium audience and national audience.
“One thing that’s always intrigued me is that one of those (first awards) went to a medium market station in the Midwest for a series on the treatment of venereal disease,” a bold series given the market and the times, he said.
“The first awards were for series, themes, issues facing the United States, but they did (and still do) include entertainment, educational and informative subjects. There was even a soap opera awarded one of the first Peabody Awards.”
The awards were named for George Foster Peabody of Columbus, an industrialist and philanthropist and benefactor of the university. His daughter, Marjorie Peabody Waite, served on the first Peabody advisory board, Jones said.
‘Hardest professor in history’
At 15, Jones began attending West Georgia College, a two-year school. He was one of four cheerleaders, among many activities. He swept floors and washed dishes 21 times a week in the dining hall, and five days a week he re-shelved library books for four hours.
For this he was paid the sum of — Jones held up six fingers to indicate $6 — and said, “A month.”
“But I needed that $6,” he added.
From there he enrolled at UGA. For a young man who chose his field of study based on waiting in line, he excelled in the Grady school. (Actually, it wasn’t a complete stretch. He had worked on the student paper at West Georgia.)
He graduated in 1941 and was offered a job by Vick Chemical in New York. He couldn’t accept — he was 19, too young to get a New York state driver’s license.
Instead he became a graduate assistant to Dean Drewry, teaching students that were older than him — several of the names are well known in Southern journalism circles.
In a scrapbook Jones has donated to the Grady school, there is a copy of an old newspaper article. The type is illegible. But the headline is clear: “Warren Jones Unanimously Chosen Hardest Professor in History of University of Georgia.”
He had his master’s degree by age 20.
His next stop was World War II, where at first he was held out of combat because of back surgery. But he eventually served as a sergeant major of the United States Strategic and Tactical Air Force at stations in England, France and Germany.
“When I came back in March of ’46, the Board of Regents transferred me to Georgia Teachers College in Statesboro with the idea I would become treasurer and a business major.”
He later resigned that position and for 16 years was a junior executive with an Atlanta company that’s now known as Equifax.
His next move would be a dramatic detour — he enrolled in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University to become a Methodist minister.
“I was 41 and had four children,” Jones said.
He served several churches before coming to Rome in 1969 to lead South Broad United Methodist Church.
In 1973 he left to become assistant director of Coosa Valley Community Mental Health Center, where he developed treatment programs in six counties. (At a bishop’s request, he also led two other Floyd County Methodist churches, Livingston and Jackson Chapel, during that time.)
The Georgia Department of Human Resources presented him with an Outstanding Service Award for innovative and effective treatment programs.
“I retired Jan. 1, 1989, and became a full-time volunteer,” Jones said. Off the top of his head he lists 18 organizations that have benefited from his volunteer spirit.
This is the second time Jones has been invited to the Peabody Awards. At the 50th awards, the only ceremony held outside of New York, Jones was invited to the Atlanta ceremony to give the invocation. He was introduced by legendary television anchor John Chancellor.
He’s thrilled to be invited back, to see what he had a hand in at inception has become today. (The Peabodys added television broadcasts in 1948 and later cable television and Webcasts.)
It will be emotional.
But, spoken like a true father on Father’s Day, Jones said, “The nicest thing of all for me is having all three of my living children with me.”
