Dennis M. Jones (September 12, 1938 – September 20, 2016) was an American businessman and pharmaceutical magnate, best known as the founder of Jones Pharma and Dennis M. Jones Family Foundation. Early life and education Jones was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1938, the son of a farm equipment dealer and a registered nurse. The family moved to Marshall, Illinois when he was a young boy. As early as age 10, Dennis was helping out with the family business, sweeping floors and dusting the sales barn at his father's farm implements dealership. By high school, Dennis was earning about 25 cents an hour, or $15 a week, and paying his parents $12 a week for room and board, leaving him $3 per week to buy school lunches and enjoy 75 cents of spending money. He considered those valuable learning experiences about business and the value of money. As a teenager, Dennis’ father often took him to St. Louis for trade shows where he experienced first-hand the polished side of business and the art of salesmanship. He also read books about business and success, including Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Dennis wasn’t a particularly good student, and after graduating from high school in 1956, college was not an option because his parents could not afford it. He worked for a year at Ford Motor Company in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and then enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1958, a year after enlisting, he married his high school sweetheart, Judy Pearce, who was from a more affluent area. Dennis wanted to run in her social circles and eventually provide her with the lifestyle she was accustomed to. Dennis and Judy began their married life in a trailer home. Dennis knew he wanted to start a career in pharmaceutical sales early on. He thought because of his farm equipment sales exposure, sales would be the best way to provide for the family. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1961, he worked for Rockford Life Insurance Company, where he stayed for three years, eventually becoming the youngest district sales manager in the company’s history.During that time, he met Jim O’Neal who had just started his own company. Jim O’Neal was impressed with Jones and hired him in sales for his upstart pharmaceutical company, Sig: Laboratories. After a few years, O’Neal sold the company to a subsidiary of