Grief and frustration have built in Atlanta since the weekend news that two local educators had gone missing on Lake Oconee.
The body of Joycelyn Wilson, 49, was recovered Sunday morning near the popular east Georgia lake’s dam, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. The man who was with her, 50-year-old Gary Jones, remains missing after their boat was reported circling the lake Saturday and was later found out of gas.
Wilson was a senior instructor of mathematics at Spelman College, where she taught for nearly 20 years. Jones has coached and taught at the Westminster Schools for most of his career; his brother, Sean Jones, was a star football player at the University of Georgia who spent nearly a decade in the NFL.
Wilson was hired at Spelman in 2007 after stints at Howard University and American University, according to her faculty page.
“It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the death of a highly respected member of the Spelman College community, Senior Instructor Joycelyn Wilson,” a Spelman spokesperson said in a statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends and the many people whose lives she touched.”
An Atlanta native, Wilson earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Clark Atlanta University, her bio page said. She also received a second master’s degree from the University of Maryland.
Wilson was heavily involved in recruiting more women of color into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, per the Spelman website. She was the program director of the Spelman/Salem STEM mentoring program and the Women in STEM program.
“Wilson loves that she is able to impact women of color in various ways at Spelman College and beyond, in particular in the field of mathematics,” the college website said. “In her spare time, she enjoys working math logic puzzles, watching baseball and being adventurous.”
Wilson taught classes in a variety of math disciplines, including calculus, statistics, linear algebra and discrete mathematics.
On Wednesday, a Spelman spokesperson said the school would not allow media on campus or interviews with Wilson’s colleagues out of respect for her family’s privacy.
Jones was a track and field coach at the Westminster Schools, a private school in Atlanta that offers classes from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Though his body has not been found, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said they were focused on recovery.
Courtlyn Cook, one of Jones’ former students, spoke to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by phone Wednesday night after spending the day helping search the lake. Jones was one of her favorite teachers and coaches at Westminster, from which she graduated in 2011.
Cook said she felt something nagging her as she followed the search from afar. She believed that feeling was God telling her to act.
Cook said Jones, a 1993 graduate of Westlake High School, had been at Westminster “forever,” and that he was formerly married to Jamila Jones, the school’s athletics operations manager. Their daughter graduated from Westminster.
While Cook said she did not regularly keep in touch with her former coach, they were friends on social media and she knew generally about his life through social connections.
According to Cook, Jones and Wilson had taken a weekend getaway to celebrate his 50th birthday, which was Saturday.
Cook described Jones as the type of coach who was demanding but fully invested in his athletes.
“He had extremely high expectations,” she said. “He wanted people to aim high.”
Joe Sturniolo, an assistant football and baseball coach at Westminster, described Jones as a friend. He said they both started working at Westminster around 2000.
“Gary didn’t start out teaching,” Sturniolo said. “He was in school working on a graduate degree, it might’ve been his PhD, and thought he was going into scientific research or something along those lines, and he wound up teaching and fell in love with it, that and coaching.”
Cook said she was amazed at Jones' level of investment in his students. He would often go to collegiate sporting events for his former athletes, supporting them even after they graduated.
Sturniolo said that Sean Jones, the former NFL and UGA football player, was Gary’s younger brother. He said Gary once brought Sean to his science class while Sean still played at Georgia from 2000 to 2003. Sturniolo’s daughter was in Gary’s middle school science class at the time.
“It was his first year teaching, and my daughter was in his science class,” Sturniolo said. “She was a huge Georgia fan, and he knew it, and he had Sean come in for the day and made sure that Sean went over and sat with her in class and signed pictures. He obviously made a huge impression on her as well. My daughter hasn’t had him as a teacher since 2000 and she’s still torn up about it.”
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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