Science interest leads to reunion
MORE THAN 30 YEARS LATER
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Island trash STAFF PHOTO BY PHIL REYNOLDS Students from Eastfield College in Dallas unload some of the trash they picked up on San Jose Island on Saturday, April 26, during the beach cleanup sponsored by the Texas General Land Office and coordinated by Keep Port Aransas Beautiful. Altogether, volunteers picked up more than 1 1/2 tons of trash.

It was almost more than J.R. Jones bargained for.

A couple of years ago he planned to take his science students from King High School in Corpus Christi to St. Josephs Island as part of the spring beach cleanup. However, he found that all the spaces on the Jetty Boat, which takes cleaners to and from the island, had already been taken - by a group from Eastfield College in Dallas.

Eastfield College?

Yep, the same place where Jones had acquired his love for science more than 30 years ago - from a professor named Carl Knight, among others.

Jones, who hadn't spoken to Knight since he left Dallas, picked up the phone and called. And that's how Jones ended up helping Knight and another instructor, Jeff Hughes, mentor a group of 35 Eastfield Science Club members during the spring beach cleanup on Saturday, April 26.

"The reaction so far has been positive among the students," Jones said. He said they both enjoyed the trip to the island and marveled at the amount of trash picked up there. They were also astonished to learn that most of the trash came not from vessels, but from being washed out of storm drains and the like.

"Furthermore, next week the beach will be full of trash again," Jones told one student over hot dogs at the Fred Rhodes Pavilion in Roberts Point Park.

"Really?" "Yep."

Jones, who had just gone on six field trips with his own students over the past few days, declined the chance to go with the college group on the research vessel Katy. But he told Knight he'd meet them later at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, one of the stops on the group's field trip.

"The great thing is seeing their interest in science grow," said Jones, who added that until his interest was piqued at Eastfield, he hadn't taken a science course since his sophomore year in high school.