Charlton Hudson Jones

Charlton Jones 86 years of age passed away on Wednesday August 19, 2026 at Manor Lake Bridgemill. He was born February 21, 1940 in Flossmoor, IL and was the younger of two boys of Morris and Ellen Jones. He was preceded in death by Morris, Jr.

Charlton tied for Valedictorian at Bloom Township High school in Chicago Heights IL, attended University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and pledged Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity. He had a teaching assistantship in metal shop as an undergraduate. He graduated top of his class in Mechanical Engineering and was hired by Ford Motor Company as a vehicle engineer in light truck engineering in Dearborn MI.

He attended the University of Michigan to get an MBA in Statistics, then while pursuing his Doctorate in Statistics he wrote the first program to schedule classrooms for the University of Michigan.

With his PhD in hand, he took a year off to sell new sports cars and was general manager of two sports car dealerships.

He started racing sports cars with an Elva Courier in 1965. He moved on to Formula V race cars for the next 29 years. In 1969 he traveled to all the Trans Am Road Races as legality inspector. The summer of 1970, he worked at SCCA main office rewriting the rule book for sports car racing.

In 1972 he began teaching at Oglethorpe University as their first Computer Science teacher and built their first computer. While teaching full time at Oglethorpe he raced sports cars becoming the first Southeast Regional Formula V Champion.

He founded and managed a company known as CJR (Charlton Jones Racing) that distributed racecar accessories. He became the exclusive US distributer of Marchal lighting equipment. In 1985 Gordon Webster became a partner in the business and best friend.

In 1990 he learned to fly in a 1946 Piper Cub and to fly aerobatics in a Mudry Cap 10B.

Charlton took up bicycle racing and was Georgia State Champion in Road Racing, Criterium and Time Trial from 1990 to 2000. He married Rebeccah in 1999 and they won Third Place in the National Championship 40K tandem bicycle time trial. They divorced in 2009.

In 1994 Charlton purchased metal working machine tools to set up a shop and began the Live Steam hobby. He owned three locomotives over the years and built some beautiful passenger cars to go with one. He was a founding member, the first secretary and an active participant in the construction and operation of the Canton, St. Paul and Pacific Railway for over 25 years.

Charlton’s wonderful sense of humor, creativity and friendliness will be greatly missed by those who loved him.

Charlton requested no service be held. Memorials may be made to the Parkinson’s Foundation.