George Jones retired as principal from Dallastown high school, but never from public work

Principal retired from Dallastown Area High School but never from public work

When George Jones snagged a ride from his residence to the York Township office in early August, he knew his vote on a rezoning plan to turn scenic land into housing would have impact.

The township commissioner’s vote would be one of five cast on a controversial rezoning proposal from a developer to build high-density housing on the former Red Lion Country Club’s 58 acres.

Further, the pristine property that serves as a watershed for Barshinger Creek lay in his area, York Township’s Ward 2. That meant that some might expect him to make the motion in favor of approving the rezoning or turning it down.

Jones was familiar with the property. He had played the rolling golf course many times. In fact, one round ended abruptly when he stepped in a groundhog hole and tore up his knee. After that, his OSS Health surgeon told him he could keep playing golf. He just needed to keep the ball on the fairway.

Here he was that August evening the retired principal of Dallastown Area High School voting as a York Township commissioner on the future of township land owned by the Red Lion Area School District.

All his career as an educator, he was known for doing things with thought and purpose, so his vote on the country club would come after great thought.

That night, he traveled a route to the township office different from the one he usually took from his longtime home near Dallastown. This time, he had departed from his comfortable room in Country Meadows of York-South in York Township’s Leader Heights.

Why he was there is a big part of his story.

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The 81-year-old George W.W. Jones Jr. is so well-known that one might think he was from a longtime York County family. This native of western Pennsylvania’s Johnstown and Grove City College graduate headed east to teach history at Dallastown Area High School in 1964.

He moved to administration and rose from there, becoming high school principal in 1978.

Early in his educational career, Millersville University assigned a student teacher for Spanish classes at Dallastown. Students joined teachers in the matchmaking game, and they won. Lani Shutt and George were married in 1968, and she soon started teaching at West York.

After the birth of her two daughters, Kim and Pam, she embarked on a banking career at York Federal and other financial institutions.

At Dallastown High, George spent 27 years as principal in the difficult and changing world of secondary education. He gained respect from students, teachers and staff and considers the high school teachers as the most dedicated people he ever worked with.

He focused on the school — a search of newspapers from his tenure brought up only routine stories from his time there. That is, except for the time he really made the news, a moment that gives insight into the playful side of this longtime educator.

For a school fundraiser in 1999, he agreed to be duct-taped to the school’s cafeteria wall, the strength of the overlapping tape suspending him from the floor. What started as an in-school fundraiser — $1 per foot of tape — covered by county newspapers turned into an international story. “Dateline” picked it up, and the school received calls from China, South Africa and England.

That reach surprised George and, really, the York County community.

“It started as a novelty thing, and we all thought it was a great activity,” George told the York Daily Record at the time.

To this day, a newspaper picture of that moment rests in a frame on his desk at Country Meadows.

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I came to know George as our three children rose through the grades and then graduated from Dallastown. He handed diplomas to two of them before his retirement in 2005. They were among more than 10,000 students who graduated when he was principal.

I had the opportunity to observe the principal engaging with parents many times, and he taught me a lasting lesson. George was always purposeful in his comments and introductions to parents and others there for events. He never missed an opportunity to draw out a life lesson or to tell a story about those he was introducing.

He was intentional about this. Before such events, he would walk through the school, talking to students and thinking about what he would say.

When I asked him if he saved stories to reuse for parents at the next concert, he immediately said no. He would never miss an opportunity to say something useful.

George would need to reflect on such lessons in a series of life challenges in the past two years.

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After retirement, George supervised student teachers at York College, stayed on the fairway when golfing, seated visitors as an usher in his beloved Bethlehem Church in Dallastown and served as township commissioner after 2009.

That was a retirement to savor. Then in 2022, things changed and illness threatened his life.

Early that year, George underwent shoulder replacement surgery and several months later, in November, he slipped and then fell on that shoulder. Then came a second shoulder surgery. And then sepsis, which started to spread throughout his body.

In the end, he endured five surgeries and long stays in York Hospital. He is quick to note that encouragement from his family, the Bethlehem congregation and skilled and kind caregivers at York Hospital kept him going.

He remembers one moment that a nurse visited him as he faced yet a new health challenge: an infection on the heart.

“You’re going to be all right,” the nurse told him as he lay in his hospital bed. “I’m going to take care of you.” The nurse prayed, and they hugged.

Soon afterward, his doctor told him not to worry, accurately predicting the infection would go away, thanks to the levels of penicillin in his system.

After all that, he needed support. Country Meadows entered into George’s story. The April day George moved into the Leader Heights retirement community, Garrett Kistler and other staff arranged a Valentine’s dinner with Lani, who was living in Country Meadows’ memory care area.

They spent a two-hour dinner, communicating in the way that couples married 57 years do – even with Lani unable to speak. Then they went back to their respective rooms in units offering different levels of care.

The next morning, a Country Meadows staff member gently told him that Lani had died.

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George has stayed in Country Meadows since, gradually recovering his health and mobility, from wheelchair to walker to walking unaided and then to driving his car.

He credits Country Meadows with helping him regain his health: its caregivers, social activities and availability of a gym, his routines overseen by physical therapists. Just the other day, honor students came in, and one engaged George in a two-hour game of Yahtzee.

On another day, the Dallastown Area High School string ensemble performed there. George was asked to give the introduction.

Which he gave with purpose, telling the audience that the popular ensemble was well traveled and in demand and those assembled were fortunate to host them.

“They were absolutely delightful,” he said.

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On that August car ride with the Red Lion Country Club vote ahead, he had another thought: how lucky he was just to be able to sit at the commissioners’ table.

And when he sat down and the meeting commenced, he and his counterparts faced a thorny issue.

The rezoning matter might seem to easily tilt toward keeping the green space intact. But the county is experiencing a housing shortage at all levels, so there’s a need to address it. Further, township officials for decades have been tasked with looking for ways to increase revenue to go toward public property upkeep, offer new public services and fend off tax increases.

George had noticed at a past meeting on the former country club property that the land was used in many ways — by science teachers and cross country runners. Further, no one was speaking in favor of the plan to build on the property except the attorney for the developer. And considerable development had been taking place around this green space.

So he was thinking that the land should remain green. At the meeting, he introduced the motion that the rezoning should be denied. The majority of the board followed his lead with a 4-1 vote. That settled the matter for the moment - the developer has the option to come back with another plan.

There might be more difficult decisions ahead, and George Jones’ contributions to the York County community that started in 1968 will continue. They would not end with his admittance to a retirement community.

With great loss and a life-threatening illness over the past year, the sense of purpose that has always characterized George Jones is there. He’s quick to credit his recovery to his family, health care givers, church and support from York South Rehabilitation Center and Country Meadows.

“The whole experience,” he says, “has caused me to focus on making each day a great day.”

Jim McClure is a retired editor of the York Daily Record and has authored or co-authored nine books on York County history. Reach him at jimmcclure21@outlook.com. 

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: George Jones never from public work in Dallastown, Pa, area