Judge Steven H. Jones
Steven H. Jones grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee, in a family shaped by his father's battle with polio and, later, his parents' divorce. As a boy, he sat outside a courtroom while a judge decided his family's future without ever calling him in to speak. That day, he made himself a promise: one day he would be a judge, and he would listen to kids.
After East Tennessee State University and law school at Memphis State (now the University of Memphis), where he graduated early as the youngest in his class, Jones joined the Sullivan County District Attorney's office. At 35, he was elected to the bench, where he served for roughly 35 years combined as a prosecutor and judge.
On the bench, Jones founded Sullivan House and built two statewide character and intervention programs, Character Counts! and Moral Kombat, that reached thousands of Tennessee schoolchildren. He was appointed to the National Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, working under two presidential administrations.
Chronic pain from a courthouse injury eventually forced his retirement from the bench, but not from the mission. He has spent his retirement years writing, speaking, mentoring, and quietly funding programs for at-risk children. He lives in Kingsport, Tennessee, with his wife of 55 years, Ginny, and is the father of three sons and grandfather of ten.
