When Ron Jones spots the camera in my hand, he issues the warning: “I’m really not much of a smiler.”
Anyone who has known the man for more than two minutes knows that’s a lie. A conversation with Jones is full of subtle chuckles and unscripted guffaws, of wide grins and quiet, nostalgic smiles. The dialogue meanders like a lazy river, constantly flowing toward its destination yet taking its sweet time about it.
“I never let the truth ruin a good story, that’s for sure,” says the 2015 Russet Aristocrat as he settles into a chair in his old office at Arrowhead Potato in Rupert. With that, he launches into the fantastic story of his life and career in the fresh-pack industry.
Coming Home
Jones is a native son of Rupert, a died-in-the-wool Minico High School Spartan. He was also born and raised in the fresh-pack potato business. His father, Rolland Jones, started a packing operation, Rolland Jones Potatoes, in Rupert in 1948, and Ron has never drifted far from those roots. Growing up, he was well acquainted with the IGSA and its workings, thanks to his father’s willingness to take Ron and his brother Roger along on trips and to the annual convention. He can’t recall a summer that wasn’t spent on the farm or in the packing shed.
Upon his graduation from the University of Idaho with a business management degree in 1977, Jones returned home to the family business. Ron worked primarily in flake sales for a couple years, but, he says with a laugh, “I really wanted to get back into the fresh-pack part of it because those guys had all the fun.”
Eventually, a spot opened up and Jones was able to be “one of those guys having all the fun.” He worked side by side with fellow Jones Potato employee Don Rasmussen, a man Jones refers to as his mentor. Jones remembers fondly the countless times he and Rasmussen were able to go to growers’ storages to check out potatoes. “We’d go out and look at them with the flashlights and cut a few open. We’d dicker, go to the guy’s house, have cookies and start talking spuds. Those were some of the best times I ever had in the business.”
Serving the Industry
Jones hadn’t been back in the fresh-pack business very long before family friend and then-IGSA president Dennis Herbold recruited him to serve as convention chairman. A year later, Jones was appointed to the IGSA board of directors, where he had the chance to learn from some of the industry’s brightest and best veterans.
“I was this young kid with all these guys who had been around for 20 or 30 years,” Jones says. “Have you ever been the kid in a deal like that? It’s kind of a neat place to be. They dragged me around and showed me the ropes. It was the perfect situation for me.”
Branching Out
In 1990, after determining “it was time to branch out from the family and see if I could do this on my own,” Jones left Jones Potato and formed Arrowhead Farms. In 1995, a packing shed became available for purchase in Rupert, and Jones—with partners Layne Rasmussen, Ralph Ingram and Richard Fletcher—bought it and formed Arrowhead Potato Company. Ingram passed away in 1996, and Roger Schaffer was brought in to fill his spot at Arrowhead.
“I always loved this business so much more than the farming deal,” Jones says.
Jones and his partners sold Arrowhead to Moss Farms in 2007, but the Arrowhead management team, including Jones as COO, remained. “There are some people that arrangement wouldn’t have worked with,” Jones says. “But the Moss family has been nothing but great to work with.”
A Charmed Life
Jones calls his career with the IGSA one of the most fulfilling and fun things he’s ever been able to do. Being named the 2015 Russet Aristocrat has given him a chance to dig up fond memories. He freely admits that it wasn’t always easy, and that involvement asked a lot of him and his family. (In fact, Jones’s youngest son was born prematurely in Savannah, Ga., while the Joneses were on a trip representing IGSA.) But they are experiences he wouldn’t trade for the world and for which he flatly refuses to take credit.
“There’s nothing really like this industry,” he says. “You try to explain it to people, and they kind of don’t believe that you can do all these contracts over the phone and expect them to work. But they always do.”
Jones officially retired in 2013, but he can often still be found at Arrowhead, “putting in my two bits.” Most weekdays, he’ll go to lunch with Tyler Heward, his replacement at Arrowhead, and former partner Richard Fletcher. Today is Thursday, so, as is custom, the trio head to Henry’s at the Drift Inn.
“My whole career, I’ve stumbled into people who it worked out with,” says Jones over his French dip sandwich. “I stumbled in the right direction. It wasn’t anything I did or planned. Everybody’s lucky once or twice, but I’ve been lucky numerous times.”