OSA Fellow R. Clark Jones was born on 30 June 1916 in Toledo, Ohio, USA. He studied at Harvard University and received his Ph.D. in 1941. From 1941-1944 he worked at Bell Labs. From 1944-1982 he worked at the Polaroid Corporation. His major research accomplishment, known as the Jones Calculus, demonstrated a mathematical model to describe the polarization of coherent light. This was shown through a series of publications between 1941 and 1956.

Jones served on OSA's Board and was an active member of several committees.

In addition to receiving OSA's highest honor in 1972, the Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus Quinn Award, Jones also won the 1944 OSA Adolph Lomb Medal, the 1989 SPIE Dennis Gabor Award, and the 2004 SPIE G.G. Stokes Award.

He passed away on April 26, 2004.