Jones daughter plans gift to UA

FAYETTEVILLE — A planned gift of more than $1 million from a daughter of renowned architect Fay Jones will go to preserving the family’s historic home and supporting visiting architecture faculty at the University of Arkansas.

The gift to the university from Jean Cameron “Cami” Jones will provide funding for the Fay and Gus Jones House Stewardship Endowment. The daughters of the couple in 2015 gave UA the 1,982-square-foot house, plus some adjacent land in Fayetteville. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The university’s architecture school is named after Fay Jones, and half of the gift will go to creating two endowments, one to bring in annually appointed visiting professors or lecturers “of national or international accomplishment,” according to the university’s announcement, and the other for the digitization of selected documents part of the Fay Jones collection maintained by UA libraries.

Cami Jones earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UA and is retired from the Texas Education Agency, where she led the agency’s early childhood education programs.

Fay Jones, who died in 2004, is internationally known. He won the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, the organization’s highest honor, in 1990. Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs is his most acclaimed building. In 2000, the American Institute of Architects recognized Thorncrown Chapel as the fourth most significant structure of the 20th century.