The Honorable Richard A. Jones is a United State District Court Judge for the Western District of Washington in Seattle. Jones, the youngest of four sisters and four brothers, was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1950. His father was semi-professional baseball player and carpenter, Quincy Delight Jones Sr., and his mother is Elvera Jones, Jones Sr.’s second wife. Jones was raised in the Central District of Seattle until he began attending boarding school.
His family constantly pushed him to pursue education, however, counselors and teachers were not as supportive. More often than not, the only advice he received was to choose a trade and forget about a higher education. Despite this, Jones attended Seattle University, graduating in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in public affairs. He would attend the University of Washington School of Law.
To support himself during his education, Jones worked at the Community Action Remedial Instruction Touring Assistant Services, CARITAS. He was also a clerk at the United States Attorney’s offices during his time at law school. At one point during his post-graduate studies, he worked at CARITAS in the morning, attended law school during the day, clerked at the U.S. Attorney’s offices afterward, and finally returned to CARITAS until closing time around 8:00 p.m.
He completed law school in 1975 and served as the community liaison officer for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s offices for two years until becoming a deputy prosecuting attorney. In 1978 he left the offices of King County and worked as a staff attorney for the Port of Seattle for five years. Beginning in 1983, Jones was employed by the firm Bogle and Gates until returning to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1988 as an assistant U.S. attorney.
Jones was active in his community, especially in empowering young minority students. He helped found the Northwest Minority Job Fair in 1987 and the First Year Minority Clerkship Program. He also served on the board of the YMCA of Greater Seattle beginning in the early 1990s.
