William Powell Jones Papers

Biographical Sketch

Major William Powell Jones was born in 1901 and lived in Gates Mills, Ohio. Prior to World War II, Jones attended Harvard University and earned his Ph.D. in English there in 1927. He joined the service in January of 1943. While in the service, Jones served in the Military Intelligence Service. He attended a training school at Camp Savage, Minnesota and was responsible for conducting research on the manpower of the Japanese army. Jones left the Army in December of 1945 at the request of the President of Case Western Reserve University, who needed him to return to his position of English Professor. Jones eventually became the Dean of Adelbert College. Jones also continued to serve his country as a reserve officer until his health prevented him from doing so.

One of his sons, Nicholas Jones, an Associate Professor of English and chair of the department here at Oberlin College, donated his father's war service material for inclusion in the WWII propaganda collection.

Scope and Contents

The William Powell Jones papers consist of 10.5 inches of archived materials. Box 1 contains the papers: memos, letters, forms, certificates, news clippings, et al. Boxes 2 and 3 contain government manuals and publications that belonged to Jones. All materials in the collection pertain to World War II. Many concern Japan, as that was Jones' area of expertise. The post-war records of William Powell Jones are located at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

An inventory of the collection items is available online.