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A BJA Profile -
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It has been said that “BJU put a red carpet on the sawdust trail.” The massive wooden buildings constructed for the city-wide campaigns of evangelists, like Jones, Sr., used left-over sawdust to cover the earthen aisles. It was common for the evangelists to encourage those wanting to be saved or desiring spiritual counsel to “hit the sawdust trail” and come forward. With his evangelistic drive, Jones, Sr. had established the school with a fervent spiritual base. He appreciated what he called “culture,” but it was his son who would lay the cultural "red carpet.” Born in 1911, Bob Jones, Jr.’s early education was often by tutors so that he could travel with his parents on evangelistic campaigns. His grandmother, Estelle Siddons Stollenwerck, taught him French when he was six and later had him memorize, word for word, the entire Methodist hymnal. At age 12, he entered Stark’s Military Academy of Montgomery, Alabama. Although a cadet, he did not live in the school’s dorms, which probably spared him from the hazing and bullying common in many military academies. When not in class or involved in other school activities, he lived with his grandmother who, according to his mother, “spoiled him rotten.”
At 16, he transferred to the Bob Jones College Preparatory Department and was a member of BJA’s first graduating class in 1928. He graduated from BJC with a major in speech and a minor in history in 1931 and joined the college faculty, teaching history. As a student, he helped to found the Classic Players as a Shakespearean repertory company. As a faculty member, he sponsored the acting troupe, often appearing in productions.
In 1933, he completed a master’s degree in history at the University of Pittsburg and in the summers of 1934-5 studied Shakespeare in Stratford, England. He developed Curtain Calls, a costumed one-man show of various Shakespearean monologues and earned critical acclaim as he performed it throughout the country for four weeks per year until 1945. |
A 1924 family trip to Europe
In Stark's Military Academy uniform - c. 1925
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Shylock, the money-lending Jew in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, was Jones, Jr.’s role in the first Classic Players’ production when he was a college sophomore. He assumed the character as the troupe toured the area (left, c 1931). Shylock was also a character in his acclaimed one-man show, Curtain Calls.
Shylock was one of his favorite characters to perform and during his life he assumed the role every time the Classic Players produced the play. His final Shylock performance was in 1986 (right). |
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The International Lyceum Association hailed him the “best young actor of Shakespeare in America.” Invited to join a touring Shakespeare company and offered a screen test and acting contract by Warner Brothers, he declined. Asbury College awarded him an honorary doctor of letters degree in 1935 for his work as a Shakespearian actor.
In 1932, two years after he graduated from college and just prior to the move to Cleveland, Jones, Jr. was named vice president of BJC and served as acting president when his father was away from campus. The acting president made more and more decisions regarding the school and did more preaching in chapel as the president spent more time in revival meetings, occasionally being gone and even out of the country for extended periods. |
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An Author, a Poet, and a Preacher – Bob Jones, Jr’s. command of the English language was legendary. He could take a simple, mundane idea and express it in an interesting, memorable, beautiful phrase. He honed this gift as he wrote sketches and monologues for Vespers while he was in college. His first book, Wine of Morning, a biblical novel of Barabbas (the malefactor Jewish leaders had Pilate release instead of Jesus) was published in 1950 and became Unusual Films’ first feature-length film. (Always favoring the roll of a villain, he played Pontius Pilate in the film.) He wrote fiction and non-fiction books, as well as short and full-length dramas.
As an author, he is probably best known for his poetry. His personal and humorous pieces are delightfully clever, but they are over-shadowed by the magnificence of his religious verse. On paper, the best use of his linguistic talents are evidenced as he poetically extols the glories of his Savior.
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My Song
Thou, Whom seraphs joy in praising, Thou, Whom angel hosts adore. Can my stamm’ring tongue be silent When I owe Thee so much more? Ever have they known Thy beauty, Ever stood before Thy throne; But I wandered from Thy presence, Separated and alone. All undone by sin and evil, Child of condemnation, I. Yet Thou laid aside Thy glory And for me came down to die. Heir of heaven Thou has made me, Bought me with Thy previous blood; Took the form of man upon Thee That I might be child of God. So my song must swell the chorus While the angels’ praises ring, I, a sinner saved and pardoned, Have more cause than they to sing. |
His Chapel messages were often more direct than his sermons. He was explaining Spiritual truth to students who needed to understand and apply it to their everyday lives. Below is a sampling of his Chapel messages.
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Jones, Jr. led the Classic Players to become a nationally known Shakespearian company. In its early years, the troupe toured southern cities. As campus theatrical facilities advanced, taking productions on the road became more difficult, but the number of campus productions rose as the company’s reputation grew. Grand Opera was introduced not only to Cleveland but also to most students as he founded the Bob Jones College Opera Association.
Being told that an art gallery on a campus was like a school having a library, Jones, Jr. asked the board for a small annual budget to purchase “old masters.” The post-war timing was perfect: Europe had art but needed money. Modern art was in vogue and demanded high prices, but the market was glutted with the type of art needed for the school’s collection and thus sold at lower prices. Today the BJU Collection is recognized as one of the leading collections of sacred art in the world.
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Art Collector and Museum Founder – Bob Jones, Jr. had no formal training to become an art collector or found an art gallery. He did, however, have a God-given appreciation and understanding of visual art which had been cultivated since childhood. He also developed friends who knew the “business” of fine art and were willing to help him build a collection of the “old masters” dealing with sacred themes.
In 1951, the BJU Art Gallery opened with 40 paintings in 2 rooms of the campus Fine Arts Building. A 1956 expansion increased the number of galleries, but the collection soon outgrew that space. In 1965, the collection moved to the renovated campus dining common. In over 30 rooms, several decorated to reflect historical periods, over 250 paintings, period furniture, vestments, icons, and biblical antiquities were displayed. Before his death in 1997, the collection included over 425 paintings. Jones, Jr. enjoyed what some called his “hobby,” and he loved sharing it with others. The information and stories he told gallery guests were often as interesting as the art. |
Jones, Jr. with Italian art historian Federico Zeri in the BJU Art Gallery, 1957
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The Largest Gift – Inspiration is a mosaic designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. It shows the angel of inspiration holding the Bible. Describing it to guests, Jones, Jr. said, “[It] came from the First Presbyterian Church in Schenectady, New York. I was preaching there one summer, and the pastor said to me, ‘We are going to increase the size of the choir. We are going to tear out that back wall and move it back.’ '
I said, ‘Well, what are you going to do with the mosaic?’ The church was quite an historical church, and the mosaic really did not {fit in]. . . He said, ‘Well, it will all fall apart when you take it out.’ I said, ‘No, mosaics are usually set in lead pans.’ He said, ‘Would you like to have it?’ I said, ‘We would love to have it.’ One of the men in the church who owned a truck line said, ‘I will bring it down to you for nothing.’ So they delivered it down here, and we put it in.” While possibly not the most valuable gift ever given to the collection, at 8 feet in diameter and 1500 pounds, it is in many respects, the largest. |
Ecce Homo by Jusepe de Ribera
Inspiration by Louis Comfort Tiffany
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The “laying of the red carpet” did not happen without criticism and opposition. Some churches did not want to have Jones, Jr. preach in their pulpit because of his Shakespearian appearances. In Cleveland a group of faculty members met regularly for prayer against campus Shakespearean productions. As Grand Opera was introduced, some groups withdrew their support of the school. The University owning sacred art had been vigorously opposed by various people. Students often complained about “wasted time” as they had to attend an Artist Series, other cultural events, or tour the Art Gallery.
The idea of fundamental Christians being backward and uncultured was widely held in the late 19th-mid 20th centuries. Some Christians rejected high culture as being phony and even anti-God. Jones, Jr. maintained that exposure to the fine arts helped to “remove the rough edges of an individual” and would give him more opportunities to reach different people with the gospel. It was not just his gifts and talents that led him to enhance the fine arts at BJU and BJA. His goal and calling was to raise the cultural skills and awareness of students so they could better serve Christ. He intentionally sought to lay the red carpet on the sawdust trail. BJU and BJA have been richly blessed as they sought to enrich students in true “culture.” 
Bob Jones, Jr., a man of culture and a cultured gentleman, died in 1997 and was buried on the campus fountain island.
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Real culture and a Christian experience should go hand in hand. Through the ages nothing else so much as Christianity has exerted a gentle, refining influence. At Bob Jones College we believe that a background of culture and a critical appreciation of that which is best and most ennobling in literature, music and the arts enriches life and lends weight to a Christian testimony. Education that fails to lend refinement to character and personality and to develop a discerning sense of values cannot truly be called Christian education. – Jones Jr. 1940 Vintage |
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Selected Works by Bob Jones, Jr.:
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Bob Jones, Jr. is also referenced in:
- The Founding of BJC and BJA - Why Found A School
- BJA's Beginning in Greenville - Academics in Early Greenville, The Announcement
- BJA Facet - The Quadrangle - Part I
- BJA Profile - Eunice Hutto
