Born in Pomona, California, he graduated magna cum laude in engineering from Stanford University.
In May 1974 he pled guilty to making illegal corporate donations to the Committee to Re-elect the President and resigned from many of his non-Northrop positions including trustee of Stanford University.
[2] He retired as chief executive of Northrop in 1989 after being reprimanded by the board of directors for his role in a bribery scandal surrounding the marketing the F-20 fighter to South Korea.
In 1959, Jones and his wife purchased Moraga Estate in Bel Air, Los Angeles, formerly owned by film director Victor Fleming (1889-1949).
[4][5][8][9] In 2013, it was purchased by Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer of the News Corporation, after he saw an advertisement in a newspaper he owns, The Wall Street Journal.