Donald T. Jones, Richmond ’84

A Love That Began at Cantor Fitzgerald

The painful thought of the loss of nearly 700 Cantor Fitzgerald employees will forever be emblazoned on the memory of their survivors. But Michele Jones will also remember that she met her husband there.

Donald T. Jones II, 39, was one of the many bond traders who worked on the 104th floor of Tower One. He was there for 17 years.

“They met at work. My daughter was an assistant to a trader at Cantor,” explained Carol Ramirez, Michele’s mother, who lives in Brooklyn but has been rotating among family members to help take care of Michele and the children at their Livingston, N.J., home.

Ramirez said her daughter left the firm several years ago when her first child was born, but the couple “always had something to discuss about the firm. She knew the business and knew everyone on the trading desk.” The couple would have been married seven years next month.

Ramirez said her son-in-law enjoyed such activities as scuba diving in the Cayman Islands and mountain-biking with his wife. “He was a happy-go-lucky young man, so involved with everything,” she recalled. “He was even into photography. He was constantly taking pictures everywhere he went and was a very good photographer.”

Jones earned his undergraduate degree in history from the University of Richmond, Va., and eventually found himself in the financial business.

Jones also is survived by a daughter, Nicole, 5, and a son, Donald Thomas III, 2; his father, Donald Thomas Jones, retired chief of police in Livingston, N.J.; his mother, Judy, and a brother, William Jones, also of Livingston.

— Bill Kaufman (Newsday)

The Kind of Man He Was

During the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Donald Thomas Jones II led others down 100 flights of stairs in a darkened stairwell. Among them: a pregnant woman who had gone into labor.

“I am sure he tried to do the same for his co-workers again this time. That was the kind of man he was,” wrote William B. Jones, in a tribute to his brother.

Jones, 39, was an executive vice president in the municipal bonds department at Cantor Fitzgerald.

There, he had met his future wife, Michele, who was then a trader’s assistant. Married in 1995, they have two children; Taylor Nicole, 5, and Donald Thomas III, age 2.

Last spring, the family moved to a house around the corner from where Jones grew up in Livingston, N.J.

“He was delighted that his daughter was starting Collins School in the same kindergarten classroom he attended,” his brother said.

Born in East Orange, N.J., Jones grew up in Livingston where his father was a police chief and his mother sold real estate.

During high school at Newark Academy, he played football. School officials retired his jersey number in November, in his memory.

Jones attended the University of Richmond, then joined Cantor Fitzgerald, where he worked for 17 years.

–Compiled by the Sun-Sentinel

Donald T. Jones II, 38, called a take-charge kind of person

Racing his mountain bike through Mendham’s Lewis Morris Park one sunny day last August, Donald T. Jones II stopped abruptly before a sun-dappled pond and smiled at the scene. “I love my life,” he told his lifelong best friend, Jim Borkan, who had accompanied him on the trek.

Fun-loving and kind, Mr. Jones made everything look easy. During his high school years at Newark Academy in Livingston, he excelled in sports and enjoyed his studies. After college, he fell in with a brokerage firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, where, over 17 years, he rose through the ranks, becoming a partner. He married the girl of his dreams.

The couple’s house, a blue-and-tan bi-level on a quiet Livingston street, was nearly perfect. All it needed, Mr. Jones often said, was a nice garden shed out back for tools and toys.

Mr. Jones never got to build it. He was killed in his offices at the World Trade Center Sept. 11. His large, extended family — cousins and uncles — built the shed for his wife, Michele, on Nov. 4, on what would have been Mr. Jones’ 39th birthday.

By all accounts, he led a wonderful life.

Born in East Orange, he grew up in Livingston, where his father was the police chief and his mother sold real estate. He attended Collins Elementary School, Heritage Junior High School, then Newark Academy. School officials there retired his football jersey number on Thursday, hanging the garment in the field house.

He attended the University of Richmond, majoring in history. A few months out of school, he joined Cantor.

There, in a land of extroverts, he felt at home. “He was the consummate salesman,” said his younger brother, Will Jones, an attorney. “You had to like him.”

Hours after he met his future wife, a trader’s assistant, at Cantor, Mr. Jones told a friend, “I’m going to marry that girl.”

They married in 1995. A year, later, a daughter, Taylor Nicole, was born. Their son, Donald Thomas III, was born three years later.

Mr. Jones loved to play catch with his daughter. He and his son would spend hours every weekend repairing and maintaining his mountain bike. He and his wife were avid scuba divers. In the quiet blue world off the coast of the Florida Keys, they found a peace together.

He was a take-charge person. Working at Cantor during the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, he helped a pregnant woman down the stairs. The downhill journey took two and a half hours.

Mr. Jones was generous. He let his younger brother borrow his jazzy pewter Nissan 300ZX Turbo and drive it to school.

In the family’s collective memory, a moment from a recent summer weekend in Lavallette stands out. With his entire family sprawled on beach blankets, Mr. Jones dove into the waves before them, jumping and splashing with sheer joy.

“He just loved it so much. He was like a ten-year-old boy,” his wife said. “He was so happy.”

In addition to his wife, daughter, son, and brother, Mr. Jones is survived by his parents, Donald T. and Judy Jones of Livingston, and his in-laws, Felix and Carol Ramirez of New York.

Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. on Dec. 1 at St. Philomena’s Church in Livingston.

In lieu of flowers, the family would welcome donations to a scholarship fund for Jones’ children: The Donald T. Jones II Trust, c/o William B. Jones II, Esq. Budd Larner Gross Rosenbaum Greenberg & Sade PC, 150 JFK Parkway, CN 1000, Short Hills, NJ 07078-0999.

— Kitta MacPherson

Copyright 2002 The Star-Ledger

Don’s cousin, Edward, has also created an online memorial for Don. Visit the site to read a letter written by Don’s brother, William, that appeared in a local town paper.

Messages for Don’s family may be left at the Cantor Family web site: www.cantorfamilies.com

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