In Memoriam: Betty Ashbury Jones, 1933-2019

Betty Ashbury Jones, was a former college professor and trustee emerita at Middlebury College in Vermont, died last month in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. She was 86 years old.

Jones was a member of the last all-girls class of the J. M. Atherton School for Girls and attended the University of Louisville, where she graduated with honors. She taught middle school in Norfolk, Virginia, and preschool in New Haven, Connecticut, while her husband David served in the Navy and then attended law school at Yale. David Jones would go on to co-found and serve as chief executive officer and chairman of Humana, the large publicly traded health insurance company.

After raising her children, Betty Jones returned to school, earning a master’s degree from Middlebury’s French School in 1986. She then returned to the classroom, teaching French for more than a decade at the University of Louisville and Jefferson Community College. She served as a trustee of Middlebury College from 1994 to 2009.

Betty and David Jones have made major financial contributions to Middlebury. In 2015, the college named its School of French in honor of Betty Jones. Earlier, she had received an honorary doctorate from the college.

“Betty Jones was an invaluable advocate for the power of education and its ability to transform lives,” said Middlebury President Laurie Patton. “She stressed that we all should become more engaged with the world, both near and far. Her influence was especially profound in her native Kentucky — and here at Middlebury.”