Thomas Victor Jones (July 21, 1920 – January 7, 2014) was an American businessman. He served as the chairman and chief executive officer of

Northrop Corporation Northrop Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its 1994 merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman. The company is known for its development of the flying wing design, most successfully the B-2 Spiri ...

Biography

Early life

Born in

Pomona, California Pomona ( ) is a city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's population was ...

, he graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

in engineering from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Career

He went to work at

Douglas Aircraft Company The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and military, defense company based in Southern California. Founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr., it merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell D ...

in 1942. He worked for the Brazilian Air Ministry to create the Aeronautical Institute of Technology from 1947 to 1951. Around 1953 he went to work for the

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...

where he published a study on transport planes for the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

. That same year he joined Northrop as assistant to the chief engineer, rose to be the president in 1959, chief executive officer in 1960 and chairman of the board in 1963. He was on the cover of ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine on October 27, 1961. He received the

AIAA The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...

"Reed Aeronautics Award" in 1985 and the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy of the

National Aeronautic Association The National Aeronautic Association of the United States (NAA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and a founding member of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Founded in 1905, it is the oldest national aviation club in the Uni ...

in 1989. He was inducted into the

National Aviation Hall of Fame The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) is a museum, annual awards ceremony and learning and research center that was founded in 1962 as an Ohio non-profit corporation in Dayton, Ohio, United States, known as the "Birthplace of Aviation" with ...

in 1999. In May 1974 he pled guilty to making illegal corporate donations to the Committee to Re-elect the President and resigned from many of his non-Northrop positions including trustee of Stanford University. He retired as chief executive of Northrop in 1989 after being reprimanded by the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

for his role in a

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

scandal surrounding the marketing the F-20 fighter to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Personal life

He was married to Ruth Jones, who died in July 2013.Official website: History
They had two children, Peter Thomas and Ruth Marilyn. In 1959, Jones and his wife purchased Moraga Estate in

Bel Air, Los Angeles Bel Air (or Bel-Air) is a residential neighborhood on the Los Angeles Westside, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains in the U.S. state of California. Together with Beverly Hills, California, Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills, Bel Air fo ...

, formerly owned by film director

Victor Fleming Victor Lonzo Fleming (February 23, 1889 – January 6, 1949) was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were the historical drama ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'', for which he won an A ...

(1889-1949).Meg James
Yet while Ruth and Thomas were living in this fine home. Ruth Marilyn adopts to girls. Annie Jones and Rosemary Jones. They spend years enjoying the company of the vineyard. After Thomas had fallen ill Ruth Marilyn and Peter Thomas had to help sell the vineyard. Rupert Murdoch buys Moraga Vineyards estate in Bel Air
''

The Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...

'', May 10, 2013S. Irene Virbila
Moraga Vineyards in Bel Air for sale
''The Los Angeles Times'', February 08, 2013Dan Berger

''The Los Angeles Times'', January 09, 1992Tim Fish
Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch Buys Moraga Vineyards
''

Wine Spectator ''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine, wine culture and wine ratings. It is the flagship publication of M. Shanken Communications, which also publishes ''Cigar Aficionado'', ''Whisky Advocate'', ''Market Watch' ...

'', May 13, 2013Charles Lewis Sullivan, ''A Companion to California Wine: An Encyclopedia of Wine and Winemaking from the Mission Period to the Present'', Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1998, p. 22

/ref> They turned the estate into a vineyard, by planting a terraced vineyard in 1978. In 2013, it was purchased by

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

, chairman and chief executive officer of the

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

, after he saw an advertisement in a newspaper he owns, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

''. On January 7, 2014, Thomas V. Jones died of pulmonary fibrosis at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Thomas Victor American aerospace engineers American chief executives of manufacturing companies American aerospace businesspeople 1920 births 2014 deaths National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Northrop Grumman people Stanford University alumni Stanford University trustees Businesspeople from Los Angeles Deaths from pulmonary fibrosis People from Bel Air, Los Angeles People from Pomona, California 20th-century American businesspeople Engineers from California American expatriates in Brazil