Alvin Jones Sr., financial services executive
Alvin Alexander Jones Sr., founder of a Baltimore financial services company who had also been an executive at H&R Block, died June 5 from complications of dementia at Keswick Multi-Care Center. He was 76.
He was born in Baltimore and raised near Druid Hill Park, the son of Pythias A. Jones, a businessman, and Virginia L. Jones, a seamstress.
After graduating in 1960 from the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, he went to work for Mercantile Bank, which at the time was recruiting black men to enter the banking industry.
He graduated from the Baltimore Institute of Banking and left Mercantile to work for Woolworth’s, where he rose to become the store’s first black assistant manager, family members said.
In 1966, he joined H&R Block and was named district manager for Baltimore City in 1968. In 1973 he was promoted to regional director, responsible for Baltimore, Washington and Northern Virginia district managers. In 1976, he moved to New York City and was named a regional director there.
Mr. Jones left H&R Block in 1986 when he joined the NAACP as a senior accountant. When the organization moved its headquarters to Baltimore, he returned with the organization.
He then became manager of the tax department of Wolpoff & Co., certified public accountants.
In 1990 he started his own financial services firm, Alvin A. Jones and Associates Financial Services, and served as president and CEO. He retired in 2013 when he became ill.
Mr. Jones had a parallel career as an entertainment promoter for the legendary Club Venus, where he successfully booked such stars as Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, among others.
A Mount Vernon resident, he had been chairman of People Encouraging People, director of finance for the United Negro College Fund and treasurer of then-Mayor Martin J. O’Malley’s transition team.
His wife of 26 years, the former Naomi Jenkins, died in 1998.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Epworth United Methodist Chapel, 3317 St. Lukes Lane, Baltimore.
He is survived by a son, Alvin A. Jones Jr. of New York City; two daughters, Karyne Henry of Pikesville and Tonia Jones Powell of Silver Spring; a brother, Dr. Pythias D. Jones of Ohio; two sisters, Ernestine Jones Jolivet of Randallstown and former state Sen. Verna Jones-Rodwell of Baltimore; and three grandchildren. An earlier marriage to the former Rita June Hines ended in divorce.