Russell Bradley Jones

Russell Bradley Jones was born September 30, 1894 in Kentucky. He went to Georgetown College in 1913 and received his A.B. in 1917. (Georgetown would give him an honorary doctorate in 1928). He was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1914 and pastored several country churches while in college.

He then went on to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary earning his Th.M. in 1920. He would later also study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

After seminary Jones pastored churches in Tennessee, Maryland, and Georgia as well as serving as supply preacher at Spurgeon’s Tabernacle in London during the summers of 1930 and 1931. From 1932-1936 he was a missionary in the Philippine Islands where he served as President of the Manila Evangelistic Institute.

In1949 Jones was elected first vice-president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and served as its president in 1950. The following year he came to Carson-Newman and until 1960 was head of the Bible and Religious Education department. His teaching specialties were Bible, preaching, missions, and religions and cults.

Jones served as contributing editor of the Baptist and Reflector for several years and authored 14 books.

He died July 17, 1986 in Spartanburg, South Carolina at age 91. His work and commitment to the Kingdom are remembered each fall during the chapel where the Russell Bradley Jones Lecture is given in his honor.