Retired Social Studies and Humanities Teacher Jon was born and raised in a small farming and ranching community in West Texas. Upon graduating from public school, he attended Abilene Christian University and graduated with a major in History in 1968. In the spring of that year, Mr. Petersen and Dr. Capone traveled to Abilene to interview prospective candidates for teaching positions in West Babylon. Following a series of unlikely occurrences, Jon accepted a job teaching Social Studies in the Junior High School. He was transferred to the Senior High building the following year. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jon received a master’s degree from Stony Brook, became a member of the English Department, and joined the Humanities Team. Following Tom Bonanno’s retirement in 1981, Jon was given the position of faculty advisor to the Student Association.

In 1989 during the beginnings of the “Glasnost” and “Perestroika” openings in the Soviet Union, Dr. Robert Manley and the New York State Education Department negotiated an agreement for West Babylon to host a group of teachers and students from a secondary school in Moscow. Dr. Manley asked Mr. Vincent Foley and Jon to serve as faculty coordinators of the program. In another series of unlikely events, the exchange continued for more than a decade and became the longest continuous running cultural program of its kind in the state of New York. In 1989 Jon joined the “Insane Players”, an acting troupe founded, produced, and directed by Hans Haugen. The group raised funds for the PTA and various local scholarships. Jon retired in 2000 and continued to do some substitute teaching and volunteer at Our Lady of Consolation.