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Hugh Richard Jones was born in New Hartford, NY on March 19, 1914. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1935. From there he went on to teach mathematics at the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

In 1939, Jones received his law degree from Harvard. He began practicing law in New York before serving in the United States Navy during World War II.
When his service in the Navy was over, he began practicing law in Utica, NY.
Jones was named president of the New York State bar association in 1972.

That same year, he was also elected to the bench at the New York State Court of Appeals. He was a registered republican who said freely that he did not vote for Richard M. Nixon.

As a member of the court, Jones wrote the decisions upholding the state's school finance system, establishing the constitutionality of no-fault insurance and striking down the prohibition of consensual sodomy.

In 1974, he earned a doctor of divinity degree from General Theological Seminary in Manhattan.

Jones resumed private law practice after retiring from the bench, joining the Syracuse office of Hiscock & Barclay. He stayed with the firm until 1992.
Throughout his career, he was also active in the Episcopal Church, serving as the chancellor of bishops of the Diocese of Central New York.

Jones died in 2001. He was 86 years old.

-Profile by Jennifer L. Blanchard

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