Brooks praises outgoing mayor as ‘a good Town Father to all of us, and to me a cherished friend’

Friday Harbor Mayor David Jones presided over his last scheduled Town Council meeting Thursday. His term ends at 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31. Carrie Lacher, who took the oath of office Thursday, becomes mayor Jan. 1. Councilwoman Carrie Brooks wrote this tribute to Jones, a retired Navy officer who served on the Town Council from Jan. 1, 2002 to Dec. 31, 2005, and then as mayor from Jan. 1, 2006 through the town's centennial year.

December 18, 2009 8:43 am

Friday Harbor Mayor David Jones presided over his last scheduled Town Council meeting Thursday. His term ends at 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31. Carrie Lacher, who took the oath of office Thursday, becomes mayor Jan. 1.

Councilwoman Carrie Brooks wrote this tribute to Jones, a retired Navy officer who served on the Town Council from Jan. 1, 2002 to Dec. 31, 2005, and then as mayor from Jan. 1, 2006 through the town’s centennial year.

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Mayor David Jones is one of the wisest, most intelligent, kind and considerate men I have ever worked with. My eight years with him are filled with wonderful memories. He has been the perfect mayor for our Centennial, with a love of history, yet with great vision for the future.

He knows the town’s citizens through his many walks through all of town, he understands the businessmen, and knows how to make right choices. He left his successful naval military career which took him away from his family for months at a time so that his children and wife could enjoy his many gifts as a father and husband. He chose to take a vacation a few years ago in a monastary in Colorado with his wife where no speaking was allowed to get his spiritual life in tune, giving him strength to face the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease.

It is interesting that he used to finish my sentences as I would struggle for just the right word to say in a town meeting where he and I were council members sitting next to each other for four years. He knew my heart. A few years later, when he was our mayor, after a brain surgery and lots of physical therapy, his suffering of involuntary arm movements seemed to be conquered. But then his speech began to be affected, and I got to help finish HIS sentences because I knew HIS heart — one wanting to do the very best and most with the time he had left as mayor.

Our love and respect for this true gentleman and his mission overlooked his disability. He truly has been a good Town Father to all of us. And to me, he is a cherished friend.

— Carrie Brooks, Friday Harbor Town Council member 10 years