JOHN Paul Jones:  

I attended Stamps school from the first grade through the junior ye mop pomar in high school. I then transferred to Lewisville for the senior year as my family had moved there sometime before.. And, as I remember, Lewisville had an organized high school baseball team. The coach was a major college star; Mr. Bell from Ole Miss, Mississippi State or someplace. Remember, I was not allowed to play football at Stamps High because of the serious football injury to my brother Tommy. Anyway, I enjoyed baseball and played organized ball until no team would let me play. I first played in the Washington, D.C. Federal Government league 1954-1966. My last effort was with the South Texas Senior League when I was 49 years old and working in the area. I worked for the federal government from high school until 1966. A vast majority of that time was in Washington, D.C. I completed my undergraduate work through programs administered by the University of Maryland. There I met my future wife, Helen Shipper, from Rock Rapids, Iowa who worked for the Navy Department and later the Drug Administration. She continued working after we married in 1958 until Valerie, our first daughter, was born in 1964 in Vienna, Virginia just accross the Potomac from D.C. She then became the family CEO and chief operating officer. The small ancient country village of 4,000 is now in the famousTyson Corners mess of ugliness. By 1966 I had become disenchanted with my government career. The "Cold War", over time, developed into a stressful and consuming personal environment for many in the intelligence agencies such as me. We began thinking of other careers. Or maybe it was just the flattery of being pursued by "Head Hunters"; those finding private business jobs for federal workers. So we ended up in Detroit, Michigan working for Chr...Expand for more