Our featured volunteer this month, Thom Jones, is entering his third year working at the Sheriff’s Summit Substation. Thom was recruited by Deputy Bryan Dodd while Thom was assisting in directing traffic at an injury accident near Summit Store. Last year, Thom was selected volunteer of the year and received a commendation from the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. He writes about fifty crime reports a year and regularly submits safety articles to the Mountain Network News.

Thom comes to the substation with a varied career background, some in law enforcement. He graduated from Cal Poly in 1962 with a major in biological science and a minor in chemistry. Thom began his law enforcement career working as an agricultural and weights and measures inspector for five years. He was a high school science teacher for the next thirty-two years. Thom also worked as a park ranger for the City of San Jose. If you ever get a chance, ask Thom about his arrest of a sleeping man or a woman changing a diaper.

From 1986 to 1988, he served as a San Jose Police Officer and later, a reserve officer. Midnight shifts, lack of seniority, deadly force issues and dealing with the lower end of the bell-shaped curve of society eventually convinced him to return to teaching from which he retired in 1998.

Thom has also been a youth pastor at Los Gatos Christian Church, an elder at Mountain Bible Church, a summer missionary in Honduras, a Silver Creek High School football coach, a life insurance agent and a nationally ranked masters’ track and field decathlete whose best event was the 110 yard high hurdles.

He enjoys the outdoors, but does not hunt. He has performed scores of taxidermy projects for park interpretive centers, schools and university museums. This past year, Thom retired as an instructor from West Valley College after ten years in the park management program where he taught horticulture, park maintenance and communications.

Thom says that his job at the substation is very rewarding and applauds the wonderful staff. He looks forward to a time when volunteers will serve outside the office on a community patrol. “Pie in the sky?” No. Currently there are service centers that have seniors on patrol in marked units that cite parking violators, do vacation checks, vehicle abatement and no-risk community contacts. Thom foresees a time in which a command center, made up of multiple agencies, is a part of the mountain community. Service vehicles can be stored at the district’s bus garage.

What is a typical day at the substation for Thom? After logging onto Netcom, Thom checks messages and responds. Crime and incident reports are generated by incoming phone calls, walk-ins or requested by dispatchers. Daily tasks include public contact, found property, follow-up calls and talking to people with grievances, such as spousal abuse, dog attacks, vehicle theft, burglary, tree poaching, squatters, mail theft, lost phones, pagers and vehicles.

Thom has assisted in the sheriff’s community surveys, the open forum meeting regarding community traffic concerns, giving Halloween safety tips to children at local schools, recruitment, inter-office activities, responding to Loma Prieta district vandalism, theft and judging school science fairs.

Thom married Myra Jones in 1953. They have seven children, ten grandchildren (soon to be eleven) and have lived in our community for three decades. Both Thom and Myra spend much of their free time recycling, biking, walking and gardening. Irises are their latest gardening interest.

They recently returned from Jonesborough, the oldest city in Tennessee. While there Myra purchased a dujo, a small black walnut and maple instrument that sounds like a dulcimer and looks like a banjo.

Thom has three great-grandfathers who fought in the Civil War, a great-great -grandmother who walked the “Trail of Tears” from Tennessee in 1839, a police officer grandfather, a father who served in both world wars and as a park ranger in the Arizona petrified forest, a son who is a major in the U.S. Army and a grandson who is currently applying to become a Ventura County sheriff.

When asked about recent interests, he said, “I’m having a very difficult time trying to control watercolors. Maybe the key is not to control it.”

We at the substation are thankful for Thom’s dedication. He has volunteered over 700 hours of service, including training many of the substation volunteers in report writing.