Richard Rich Jones Obituary

Richard Rich Jones, PhD, passed away December 22, 2025, at the age of 90. Dick was a multifaceted human being— scientist, outdoorsman, musician, parent, and caring friend. He was born in Providence, RI, Nov 1, 1935, to Nelson Bishop Jones and Marion Rich Jones. He was one of three sons, with brothers Nelson B (Chib) and Foster Townsend Jones. He is survived by his two children, Brian Townsend Jones and Kathryn Elizabeth Jones. Dick lived his last 10 years with his son Brian in Sunriver Oregon.

Dick’s career followed many trajectories. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from the University of Maine and his PhD from the University of Oregon. As a research scientist, he worked at the Oregon Research Institute (ORI) in Eugene Oregon in the early 1970’s and later founded Evaluation Research Group (ERG) in 1977. One of his colleagues, Mark Weinrott, described him as “a great methodologist who could take any data set and figure out how to analyze it. He was a pioneer in the application of time series analysis to behavioral data, especially those generated from single-subject reversal designs. The Independent Evaluation of the Teaching Family Model of Delinquency Treatment (a grant for which he was Principal Investigator) was the largest NIMH project at the time, spanning seven years. The project was extremely well-organized, and the results disseminated with complete transparency . . . Dick was the best mentor. He preferred to remain in the background most of the time, but he was a real star.”

Dick left the research field and moved to Bend Oregon, where he made his living as a videographer recording peoples adventures skiing and running rivers. He lived in a geodesic dome and pursued his love of skiing at Mt. Bachelor. He rafted most of Oregon’s challenging rivers, including the Grand Ronde, Owyhee, Deschutes, and McKenzie Rivers. As a rafter, he would take the first run through the rapids so he could assist the canoeists by collecting them and their gear if they failed to successfully navigate the maelstrom.

Dick’s friends joined him in his pursuits as researcher and adventurer. One friend, Hy Hops, described a wilderness canoe trip he shared with him on the Dubawnt River in the Northwest Territories of Canada in 1990. “I met Dick some 55 years ago when I was a student working with Jerry Patterson, and Dick was working on a project in ORI’s middle earth facility, as it was called then. He was part of a group that met most Fridays after work for wine, beer, peanuts and outrageous laughter. His sense of humor was what I recall and has contributed to our friendship since then. It was important some 30 years later when we teamed up to travel the Canadian north country with Jerry and Marion by canoe. We spent around 3 weeks paddling together and living in a relatively small tent. Our distinct but quite different OCD styles could have made this trip a disaster. Dick was not only a minimalist but well organized, taking up very little space in our minimal sleeping arrangement. I, on the other hand, was a maximalist, spreading my belongings out as much as possible. Yet we enjoyed each other’s company, which helped to accommodate our living styles as well as our different canoe histories and expertise. On white water, I was in the stern negotiating rocks and other river intangibles. On the very large lakes, Dick, with his sailing history moved to the stern so as to take advantage of the winds rather than fighting them, which is what I’d been doing. I would have tried to outrun them. Dick raced into them and then tacked with the wind at our backs simplifying our lives. Overall, it was great fun and further nurtured our long friendship leaving me with unforgettable loving memories.”

One of Dick’s transitions involved a move to the big island of Hawaii, where he worked leading a social services agency. He immersed himself deeply in Hawaiian culture. For example, he joined the Keauhou Canoe Club, a team of outrigger canoeists and served as helmsman. As a musician, another of his passions, he played the standup bass in the Hawaiian band the Voggie Mountain Ramblers. Dick never did things halfway, so when he learned to hula, he won first place in a male hula dancer contest.

Dick returned to Oregon in the early 2000’s where he shared adventures with friends Jerry Patterson and Marion Forgatch skiing, running rivers, camping, and talking science. One of his important contributions was to help conceive Implementation Sciences International, Inc. (ISII), a non-profit organization that implements the parenting program GenerationPMTO. ISII grew out of a conversation among Jerry, Marion and Dick on a ski chairlift talking about the importance of ensuring that families in need would have access to evidence-based intervention. Dick served as Chair of the board of directors of ISII for ten years.

Dick’s Yankee upbringing in the Northeast left a lasting influence on him. Dick loved his children. Marion said she could always count on him as a big brother to back her up in difficult situations. He was precision oriented. He enjoyed doing forestry work with hand tools on Marion and Jerry’s forestland. He enjoyed fixing things and was known as the sublime putterer. He was famous for restoring his old land cruiser with coat hangers and leather. He liked to laugh with good friends.

Dick lived an unconventional life, filled with science, adventure, music, and friendship. He left his mark of excellence on everything he touched.