[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17114]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  RECOGNIZING DR. JAMES ``JIM'' JONES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise to recognize and honor one of 
Nevada's great sons and my friend, Jim Jones, on the important 
milestone of his 80th birthday. I appreciate the longtime friendship 
Jim and his son, Jimmy, have afforded me. Jimmy worked for me and has 
remained a good friend ever since.
  Jim Jones hails from one of Las Vegas' railroad families. In 1921, 
after Jim's father proudly served our Nation in World War I, he 
pioneered West in a boxcar and not much else. Jim's father arrived in 
Las Vegas, walked into a railroad shop and stayed for 21 years. It was 
on South Third Street that Jim remembers his early childhood, as he 
watched the trains go by in his small railroad town of Las Vegas.
  Jim has spent a lifetime working hard and giving back to his patients 
and community. His commitment to service began at the age of 12 as a 
Boy Scout in Troop 63. Jim grew interested in dentistry while a student 
at Las Vegas High School. But he knew he was unable to afford college, 
so he joined his father to work the railroad at 15. Jim tirelessly 
worked nights, weekends and summers; after graduating from Las Vegas 
High School, he attended East Los Angeles Junior College. During his 
second semester of college, he served in a Naval Reserve Unit when he 
was called into active duty during the Korean War. Although he could 
have applied to be exempted, he chose to serve as a dental technician 
and proudly worked on a Marine base in San Diego fixing recruits' teeth 
before they would head overseas. He later attended BYU's pre-dental/
medicine program and graduated with honors from dental school in 
Seattle.
  He returned to Las Vegas to work for the Nevada State Department of 
Health's Dental Division, which led him all across Indian country in 
Nevada. He traveled with a fold up chair in a station wagon across the 
most rural parts of Nevada providing dental care and services to Native 
American children in Schurz, Gabbs, Tonopah, Overton and Mesquite. The 
time he spent in Native American communities across Nevada taught him 
much about our State, and its first people, and because of this formed 
longtime friendships.
  In 1961, Jim opened his private dental practice, thus beginning a 
long career of providing dental care to many in Southern Nevada. He 
retired from his full-time practice in 2002, though he still works 
weekly caring for patients including Landra and me. He's lived a life 
of service as a longtime member of service organizations like Kiwanis 
Club and Rotary. He served in the leadership of Rotary as director, 
vice president, and president. He is passionate about Las Vegas, and he 
has remained involved in these service organizations, as well as in 
local commissions.
  Mr. President, I share only but a glance at Jim's life as we reflect 
upon his many contributions on the momentous occasion of his 80th 
birthday. My friend, Jim, embodies the story of Nevada, that the son of 
a working class man can build a good life for his family and still have 
legacy of that small railroad town, Las Vegas.

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