The Career Development Center (CDC) will be getting a new name thanks to the generosity of Helen Jones '37, who has made a significant contribution to the center. At a May 9 formal dedication ceremony for College trustees, MHC alumnae, friends, and the campus community, the center will be named The Daniel L. Jones Career Development Center in honor of Jones's father.
Through her recent naming gift to the CDC, Jones has found a unique way to honor her father and support her alma mater, while insuring that future generations of MHC women will make educated career choices. CDC Director Philip Jones (who is not related to Helen Jones) said, "Helen Jones's gift and this dedication are the capstones to the whole process of renovating the CDC. It is wonderful that she chose to support the center in a major way, and that funding for the renovation of the CDC has been provided almost exclusively by the extended MHC community."
The renovation of the CDC had its inception in January 1996, when the College dedicated its resources to "make a statement in bricks and mortar about the importance of career development at MHC," said Philip Jones. This "statement" included centralizing career planning activities by adding a 3,850-square-foot building addition, tripling the center's library space, adding workshop and presentation spaces, creating an employer lounge, and updating interviewing facilities. High-tech enhancements included the purchase of state-of-the-art electronic job-search technology. Carrying a price tag of $1.3 million, these renovations were completed in August of 1996. Many members of the worldwide MHC community have generously contributed to the CDC. With Helen Jones's gift, its funding is complete.
During a visit to MHC in 1996, Helen Jones toured the renovated CDC and remembers being "very impressed, particularly with the technology. Much later, when I learned of the special need to complete the funding for the center, I was happy to be able to help," she said. "I feel that the many services offered by the CDC are important for students and alumnae, and for parents who invest in their daughters' education." Since her father had invested so much in her education and career, Jones decided to name the CDC in his honor. "My father inspired people to work with him, and he helped them advance their careers. This included putting women in responsible positions," she noted. One such woman was Helen Jones herself.
In 1937, as a senior economics major interested in business, the best option open to Jones was the "secretarial route," she said. Jones spent the year after graduation learning shorthand and typing, and with the help of MHC's Vocational Office, secured a job as a secretary/bookkeeper. (Fortunately, the CDC is now able to help many students begin their careers on Wall Street.) Over the next fifty years she worked her way to the top, retiring in 1988 as treasurer of Strouse Adler Company, a Connecticut-based intimate apparel company. Jones's father served as president of the company for many years and was chairman of the board at the time of his death in 1967.
Daniel Jones took over the management of Strouse Adler, a then-failing corset-manufacturing company, during the Depression. With the help of two-way stretch elastic, a revolutionary material that became available in the 1930s, he transformed the enterprise into a thriving business. After stints as a secretary and as an interpreter of government regulations for a seed-growing company during World War II, Helen Jones joined Strouse Adler as public relations director in 1947. She ended her career as one of three officers running the company. Summing up how MHC helped her achieve all this, Jones noted, "My education gave me confidence that I could learn new things and accept challenges."
Because Helen Jones "accepted the challenge," funding for the CDC is now complete, and the center is one of the finest such facilities at any U.S. college or university.
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