Our move to the Boisfeuillet Jones Center

We think it is so appropriate that the new Prehealth Mentoring Office be housed in the Boisfeuillet Jones Center!  Why?

It is indeed appropriate that the new PreHealth Mentoring office is housed in a center named after Boisfeuillet Jones Sr.  Boisefeuillet Jones, president emeritus of the Woodruff Foundation, has been called one of Atlanta’s “greatest champions of philanthropy,” was part of Emory for decades, beginning as a college and law school graduate, then assistant professor of science and dean of administration and director of health services.

Mr. Jones received a law degree from Emory University, in Atlanta. While there from 1946 to 1960, he was an assistant professor of political science, dean of administration and a vice president.

Boisefuillet Jones has many connections with the health sciences at Emory.  Although the Woodruff Health Sciences Center was not formally established until 1966, Jones was the first person to oversee the medical activities and institutions of the university and to advise about their potential and development. In 1952, he wrote a comprehensive plan to expand Emory’s clinical services and develop the schools of dentistry, medicine, and nursing. Robert W. Woodruff underwrote this plan, leading to the creation of The Emory Clinic in 1953.

Jones left Emory to serve as President John Kennedy’s special assistant for health and medical affairs and remained with President Lyndon Johnson following Kennedy’s death. Among his many accomplishments in health policy was helping shape the legislation that became Medicare. He returned to Atlanta to head the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Foundation and the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation. It was during this time that the foundations gave Emory University $105 million, a gift that catapulted Emory University from its status as a strong regional institution to the path to national greatness.

Jones, 88, died July 18 after a fall. Generous even in death, he donated his body to the Emory University School of Medicine.