Oct. 2001
President's
Message
Portrait of ...
Portrait Of ...
Jim and Kathy Jones
Kathy is a native New Yorker, being born and raised in Manhattan and New Rochelle. After high school, she attended City College of NY, majoring in Liberal Arts. Over the years, she has displayed symptoms of an incurable entrepreneur with businesses of a restaurant, antiques dealer, real estate, and photography. She was Staff Photographer for the Fingerlakes Business News for 2 years in the Finger Lakes area of central New York. She has been in camera sales for the past 7 years; 6 years in Syracuse, NY and for the past 10 months has been employed part time at Cameras, Etc., in Wilmington as a Photo Imaging Consultant.
Jim was born and raised in El Dorado, Arkansas, an oil refinery city of approximately 32,000 on the southern border of the state. During his time in high school, he played in the band and was a member of the church and school choirs. Jim received an all expense paid scholarship to attend Mississippi Valley State College (now University) because of his musical abilities. The college was embarking on a music department program and solicited musicians from 10 states to get a band and choir in place for the first time in the college’s history.
Jim majored in mathematics and after graduation, taught high school math, science, physics, and chemistry in Texarkana, Arkansas for three years. After the second year, he received a National Science Foundation Grant to attend classes for the summer at Texas A&I University, and after the third year another NSF Grant to attend Cornell University where he received his Masters Degree in physics.
After graduation, Jim began work for New York State Electric & Gas Corporation in Binghamton, NY and was there for 30 years. He held numerous positions during that time including Marketing Manager, Assistant to the Vice President, Assistant to the Chairman, Division Manager, etc. Jim retired at the end of 1999 and decided to develop his long held interest and activity in photography into a full time business.
PBK Photography was a reality before Jim’s retirement when he and Kathy decided they would establish the business after many years of photographing their favorite subjects as a hobby. The original name of the business was Photography by Kathy with Kathy as the founder. They are former members of the Syracuse, NY Camera Club and are relatively new residents of Delaware, being here only 14 months. They are impressed with the friendly nature of Delawareans and enjoy the high level of activity in the Wilmington arts community. They are both Lifetime members of the Wilmington NAACP.
Jim and Kathy have attended many seminars and workshops related to photography and are annual attendees at the New England Council of Camera Clubs Conference and PhotoExpo held in Amherst, Mass., and New York respectively. These activities add to their formal training at Light Works, a division of Syracuse University. Jim is a member of Delaware Professional Photographers and Professional Photographers of America while Kathy is in the process of joining the Photographic Society of America. Together they’ve developed the concept of Photo Therapy, a process by which photos are used in varying locations to elicit particular behaviors. They also photograph weddings, portraits, and special events.
The Joneses have a blended
family of 10 children – 8 girls and 2 boys – and 14 grandchildren.
They were married on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, and are celebrating their
25th wedding anniversary this year.