Oldest Paramedic to Respond at Ground Zero Dies at 93
SPRINGFIELD — Benjamin Franklin Jones, the former president and CEO of Monarch Life Insurance Company in Springfield and the oldest paramedic at Ground Zero following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, died Jan. 14 in Stuart, Florida, at the age of 93.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and a U.S. Army veteran, serving during World War II, he joined the Monarch Life Insurance Co. in New York City where he rose from field underwriter to managing his own agency in Cleveland, Ohio in 1953. He was the company's first agent to underwrite $1 million of insurance in a single year and was among the 35 top underwriters. In the early 1960s he moved to Springfield as vice president of agency operations, later becoming president and CEO and ultimately chairman of Monarch.
He was always community-minded and worked many hours with civic organizations, including: the Springfield Theater Arts Association to establish a resident repertory program; as Finance chair to Western New England College; Community Council of Greater Springfield; board member of Trinity Church; Head of the United Fund; Wesson Memorial Hospital; Head of the Drug Abuse Task Force which established a narcotics addict rehabilitation home; Chairman of the Governor's Advisory Council for Comprehensive Health Planning; Chairman of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.
Civic awards included the prestigious Pynchon Award for good citizenship and outstanding public service and the Boy Scouts of America as distinguished citizen of the year. In 1984 Ben carried the ceremonial Olympic torch on one leg of its trip to Los Angeles for the summer games.
After a 40-year career with Monarch, he pursued a lifetime interest as a first responder. He and his wife of 71 years, Betty, were trained as EMTs at Springfield College. Jones continued his training in the first class of paramedics at the college. He began his second career as a volunteer in Springfield and later in Shelter Island, New York, and Stuart, Florida.
Robert Hopkins, assistant professor of EMS Management at Springfield College, trained Jones as a paramedic.
He said Jones loved the camaraderie of serving as a paramedic. "He was a strong, wiry guy, a combat veteran of World War II. He was a man of the people," Hopkins said.
"Being a paramedic was a good fit for him," Hopkins said. "He was very kind, and he lived a wonderful life," he said. Hopkins said that being a paramedic is "more of a calling than a job."
"He was a generous man, and he did God's work," he added.
After his retirement as chairman of the board at Monarch Capital Corp., Jones spent time talking about opportunities for people who are retiring. He maintained that senior citizen workers could enjoy the benefits of working – being productive, meeting people and making money – without all the job related pressures they faced in their first careers.
Jones served on an ambulance that responded to the fatal shooting of two Springfield police officers.
His crew served in the decontamination area under the Brooklyn Bridge. Jones' team was in charge of treating the officers' eyes, flushing the officers' eyes of dust and cement.
His son, Douglas Jones, said his father continued to serve as an EMT in Shelter Island and Stuart until about a year ago.
"He had incredible drive," his son said. His son said he believes that serving as an EMT was "one of the things that kept him going."
David Starr, president of The Republican Co., said Jones was "one of the visionary leaders who brought the private and business sectors together to revive Springfield's ailing downtown in the 1980s and '90s."
Starr said, "Thanks to corporate activists like him, Springfield Central, the downtown business development organization, persuaded private developers to spend more than $400 million for the construction of Monarch Tower, the Sheraton Hotel, the TD Bank headquarters, the Morgan Square apartments and many other projects."
J. William Ward, retired president and CEO of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, said that Jones as former chair of the Regional Employment Board, was instrumental in the creation of one-stop career centers in Springfield and Holyoke. "He was responsible for a lot of positive things that remain in this area," Ward said.
Jones is survived by his wife Betty Jane, his three children, son Douglas Jones of Ellsworth, Maine, his daughters Susan Jones of Ithaca, New York, and Nancy Jones of Somers, Connecticut, and his five granddaughters and two great-grandchildren.
He also leaves a sister, Elizabeth Crandall of Shelter Island, New York.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Shelter Island Ambulance Foundation Inc., P.O. Box 547, Shelter Island, NY 11964 or to the Union Chapel in the Grove, P.O. Box 326, Shelter Island Heights, NY 11965.
