I AM WILSHIRE - JEFF JONES

Teeth and Tunes

Church, work and family keep Jeff Jones busy, but then he’s had his fingers in lots of pies all his life.

Born in Dallas, he grew up in Lakewood. He took piano lessons as a child and played trumpet in the junior high band. At Woodrow Wilson High School, football took the place of the band.

Jeff primarily played “end of the bench,” he said, but did get some playing time at nose guard, linebacker and tight end. He also was on the swim team, specializing in freestyle and backstroke.

He was a summer counselor at Camp Grady Spruce, a YMCA camp, for several years and became a unit leader. He was a water skiing instructor and boat manager and led some music activities, having played guitar since his junior high school days.

Jeff also was active in Boy Scouts and is an Eagle Scout. “My dad was an Eagle Scout and once had more badges than anyone else in Texas,” he said. “All five of my brothers are Eagle Scouts.”

Now a Scoutmaster himself, Jeff works with first-year Scouts, and his older son Adam is an Eagle Scout. “I enjoy watching kids grow and learn survival skills as well as how to act,” he said.

After graduating from Woodrow in 1978, he stayed in Dallas for a year, working as head usher at the Fair Park Music Hall and attending Richland College.

He then enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, where he majored in biology.

“I decided as a senior in high school that I wanted to be a dentist,” he said. “I was good with my hands and had done some taxidermy in high school. I did a little hunting and mounted some ducks and pheasants.”

Jeff’s dad was an internist, and although Jeff was drawn to a medical career, he knew he didn’t want to answer calls in the middle of the night. “I was enamored with the dental office” as a patient and thought dentistry was “a noble profession,” he added.

He entered Baylor College of Dentistry in 1981, graduating in 1985 and becoming a general dentist.

“I pretty much started my own practice,” he said, but he shared office space with another dentist in the beginning to build up his practice. “I never had to take out a loan.”

Jones met his wife, Crysta, in 1983 through his sister-in-law, and they were married in 1987. “We waited until I finished school and made sure it was right,” he said.

Crysta was a “hard-core Baptist,” and so Jeff soon was baptized at First Baptist Church of Dallas. He had attended Wilshire some as a youth and also had attended Presbyterian churches.

“We tried out several churches and joined Wilshire after just a few Sundays,” he said.

An ordained deacon, Jones is currently inactive because his Scouting work keeps him busy on Monday nights. Officially a member of Epiphany Class, he has taught fourth-grade Sunday School for nine years. He enjoys this age because the children are inquisitive and respectful and because this is “a key formative year.”

He and Crysta have led a kindergarten choir for six or seven years, and he has played guitar in informal bands at Wilshire on numerous occasions.

Jeff is an old hand as a guitarist. At UT, he was a member of a 1950s-style band that played for fraternities and sororities on several campuses.

Now he plays with Wes Nile and the Texas Skeeters, which features a variety of music—rock, 1950s, country, disco and Western swing—for weddings and private parties. He is also teaching guitar to all four of his children—Lyndsey, Adam, Rachel and Nick.

This year marked a once-in-a-lifetime event for the Jones family: All four children participated in Wilshire’s Youth Choir mission tour. That’s why Jeff decided to go along as a chaperone for the group’s just-completed trip to Boston. (Crysta is the choir’s accompanist.)

“I’m amazed by the talents that the kids have and the character of our youth group,” he said.

“Wilshire has a lot to offer,” including “the friendships we’ve developed over the years” he said. “The bottom line that separates it from other churches is the friendliness and openness and the acceptance of all people.”