Doris Jones
moves on this summer to travel the country
Doris Jones, foreground, is pictured with her business office team, Donna Cochran, Robin Blackwell, Amanda Martin and Chuck Gravitt.
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fter more than four decades, seven presidents and 10 vice presidents for finance, Doris Jones is turning in her calculator for traveling with her husband. Jones started in the business office on May 7, 1972, when everything was done by hand. She has seen Reinhardt University grow by leaps and bounds, from student bank accounts in the business office and paper ledgers and calculators to a controller leading the department and everything being computer based. “We used to figure charges by hand. Students would bring us cards with their schedule, what they were taking and their hours, and we would figure by hand what they were going to be charged. Then we would have to manually post to their accounts,” Jones said of when she began working in the business office. “First we used the Burrows bookkeeping machine that we used for posting but then we went to a computer system.” Not only has she seen the process change, she has witnessed fees go from $18 per credit hour to $665 per credit hour. “We went from per credit hour charges to block tuition fees,” she added.
Change is something she has embraced as she has watched Reinhardt and the world evolve, and she said it is inevitable. She encourages students and others to embrace it and to be adaptable. “If you are going to get along in this world, you better be able to adapt,” she said. Living just a few miles down the road, Reinhardt offered a close place for her to work when she and her husband, J.T., moved to Waleska in 1964. While the convenience was a perk, she said Reinhardt has benefited her over the years and she always felt like she was part of a family. The quiet, humble accountant is more of an outdoor person and enjoys seeing the sights — her favorite spots on Reinhardt’s pristine campus are the trail behind the gym and Zach White’s flower garden, she said. Jones still will be around the Waleska area when she is not traveling. Her official retirement date is June 30 but she and her husband already have plans in motion. “Travel when I want to. Anywhere I can go to,” she said about her plans for retirement. Reinhardt Magazine Spring 2016 • 25