Johnpaul Jones

In Oklahoma, he had been instructed in Native American traditions by his maternal grandmother Pearl; in California (Manteca and later Stockton) he lived in a largely Hispanic environment and at times did farm work, which was his mother's occupation.

A job as an office boy at architecture firm Higgins & Root in San Jose, combined with his drawing skills set him on the first steps of his career.

[1] After graduating in 1967, he moved in Seattle, working briefly for Paul Thiry, then at Dersham & Dimmick, before opening a practice on Bainbridge Island.

In the early 1970s, he met landscape architect Grant Richard Jones (no relation), who was studying the Native American burial mounds of the Midwest.

The bridge, "retracing part of the ancient Klickitat Trail Indian path with a curving, commemorative walkway above State Route 14" provides pedestrian access from Fort Vancouver to the Columbia River waterfront for the first time in decades.

At that time, it looked like Ross Perot might acquire the collections for a new museum in Dallas, Texas, and Jones was involved on a consulting basis.

With David Fukui, Tom Kubota, Mel Streeter, and Marga Rose Hancock he co-founded the AIA Seattle Diversity Roundtable.