Just days away from his 91st birthday, Everett Jones is still busy working with kids. It’s something he has been doing for most of his adult life as both a teacher and coach.
On this day, he is helping Riverside Middle School students make 200 peanut and jelly sandwiches that will be given to those on the streets of Billings.
The students are members of the Builders Club, a service organization sponsored by the Golden K Kiwanis—an organization that Jones joined after he retired from teaching.
“The whole idea is to try to get them to be lifetime public servants,” says Jones.
It’s something that keeps him going.
“You know, it's good that it kind of makes your life worthwhile,” he says.
“Our kids learn from him every single time he is in the building. It’s pretty amazing,” says Tifany Parish, a counselor at Riverside.
It’s obvious that teaching is still very much in his blood. He taught for decades, first in Scobey, then at the old Garfield School, before winding up as social studies teacher at Riverside where he was the school’s first football coach.
He had been a standout at both Billings Senior and Eastern Montana College (now MSU Billings).
“Well, I didn't have the size, but I had the will, I guess, to do it,” Jones says.
After college he went into the military and was sent to Germany with the 1st Infantry Division during the occupation following World War II.
“We were the first line of defense if the Soviet Union decided to move into Europe, which they thought they would after World War II,” he says.
A lifetime of service for his country—and for his community.
“He does so much here at Riverside and with the Kiwanis and with Builders Club, but he also does so much more in the community. He's a man that totally lives his life for other people. It's an amazing thing to see and to be a part of,” says Parish.
“What makes me worth something? You know, it isn't what I can gather or anything like that. It's what I can do for humanity,” Jones says.
