THE FOLLOWING IS A DANVILLE AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE RELEASE
DANVILLE – A few blocks west of Danville Area Community College is a very special Dairy Queen.
For more than 40 years, Bob Jones owned and operated that business. Bob Jones was also Danville’s longest-serving mayor, whose four-term tenure spanned from 1987 to 2003.
Mayor Jones passed away on Feb. 6, 2024, at the age of 85. In his will, the mayor remembered DACC with a $100,000 gift to the DACC Foundation’s scholarship fund.
DACC Foundation Executive Director Tonya Hill understood the connection between Mayor Jones’ Dairy Queen and DACC. She says, “Mayor Jones had a personal mission to help young people out of poverty. He told me that he would send his Dairy Queen employees to DACC to prepare them for higher-paying careers as supervisors or managers. His gift to the College is his way of showing appreciation to DACC for the quality of the education his employees received.”
The scholarship designates students studying business as the primary candidates to receive support from Mayor Jones’s scholarship fund. As an endowed scholarship, the fund generates $5,000 annually—forever.
Jeff Sirratt is the executor for Mayor Jones’s will and a lifelong friend. He says of Mayor Jones’s gift to DACC, “He never went to DACC, but Bob appreciated the value the College brings to the community. Bob always had the best interests of Danville at heart, and that’s why we’ll always remember him as a great mayor.”
To honor Mayor Jones for his gift, a bronze plaque with his picture will be permanently placed on the Wall of Honor in DACC’s Bremer Center.
This year, the DACC Foundation awarded 857 scholarships—an all-time record for the College.
The Danville Area Community College Foundation is a non-profit corporation organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of Danville Area Community College. The Foundation works with the College to obtain gifts of money, property, and services, and this brings to the College the necessary financial support that is vital to meet the needs of today’s diverse student body. For more information about the DACC Foundation, please contact Executive Director Tonya Hill at (217) 443-8772.
Danville Area Community College is a comprehensive community college serving Illinois District 507, which consists of Vermilion County and parts of Champaign, Iroquois, Edgar, and Ford counties. DACC’s main campus is located at 2000 East Main Street, Danville. The College has a higher-learning center in Hoopeston at 847 E. Orange. To apply to DACC, call 217-443-3222 or visit the Web site at www.DACC.EDU.
