Community Corner

Civic Icon Gordon Jones Back on His 'Own 1¾ Feet' for Volunteer Honor

Longtime president of the La Mesa Historical Society recovering from partial foot amputation.

Volunteer veteran Gordon Jones, once near death with a blackened right lower leg, looked as bright as the roses Saturday afternoon at the annual meeting of the La Mesa Historical Society.

Jones, who was society president for 10 years among several other notable roles in La Mesa, received the Volunteer of the Year award from outgoing president Donna Niemeier, who also gave recognition to her former school district mentor Charmon Lehew.

“I’m going to be around for as long as I can stand on my own 1¾ feet,” said Jones, 72, at the outdoor ceremony behind the historic 1908 Rev. Henry A. McKinney House Museum on University Avenue.

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Jones, getting around in an electric wheelchair, wore a boot that protected his right foot—still in “constant pain” but without a lot of feeling after April 18 surgery called transmetatarsal amputation, which “lopped off” the front of his foot, he said.

Dr. Keith Everett at the San Diego Medical Center/Kaiser Foundation Hospital on Zion Avenue performed the procedure instead of what they first had feared—amputation just below the knee.

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The extensive black discoloration is gone, and Jones says: “I’m lucky to be alive.”

Now back home in La Mesa with his wife, Carol, Jones was once in critical condition when several aneurysms enlarged and ruptured.  He said he recently learned from a cousin that he has a family history of aneurysms.

Asked when he’d recover from the surgery—and get the protective boot off— Jones said, “Hopefully in July, I’ll run around waving a flag.”

At a meeting that ended with an outdoor ice cream social (with cookies and root beer floats), the society elected a new slate of officers for 2011-2012, who will be heavily involved in La Mesa’s Centennial cityhood celebration in February 2012.

Aaron Landau will succeed Niemeier as president, joined by author and historian Jim Newland as first vice president, Ruth Contino as second vice president, Sharon Crockett as secretary and Rod Whitlow as treasurer.

Earlier, Niemeier told warm and funny stories about Charmon Lehew, one-time assistant superintendent of the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District who also was principal of Murdock, Bancroft and Spring Valley elementary schools.

“You’ve had a profound effect on my life,” Niemeier told Lehew after describing how she first met her in 1964 while Niemeier was a student teacher observing master teacher Lehew control 300-plus students at a Northmont Elementary assembly.

Lehew’s name was added to 74 others on a display board planted among the 27 bushes in the La Mesa Historical Society Commemorative Rose Garden, including names from her own past, such as legendary Grossmont High School coach Jack Mashin.

Lehew, 84, graduated from Grossmont in 1944.

Helped by her husband, Clarke, around the grounds, Lehew was touched by the induction ceremony and honor.

“It’s very special, very special,” she said. “It’s just a part of La Mesa, part of La Mesa history.”


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