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Mary Gardiner Jones

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Mary Gardiner Jones
Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
In office
October 29, 1964 – November 2, 1973
PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
Personal details
Born(1920-12-10)December 10, 1920
New York, New York, US
DiedDecember 23, 2009(2009-12-23) (aged 89)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationWellesley College
Yale Law School
OccupationAntitrust Lawyer
Known forFirst woman to serve on the FTC

Mary Gardiner Jones (December 10, 1920 – December 23, 2009)[1] was the first woman to serve as a member of the Federal Trade Commission of the United States, to which she was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.[2]

Biography

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Born in Manhattan to a distinguished Long Island family. Jones graduated from the Nightengale-Bamford School in 1939[3] and received a B.A. in history from Wellesley College in 1943. She worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, where she was a research analyst in charge of the Swiss desk.[3] She received a law degree from Yale Law School in 1948.[1]

Jones became a lawyer for the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice in 1953. In that role, she presided over antirust and cartel cases, serving as chief counsel for United States v. Watchmakers of Switzerland Information Center, Inc.(1955).[3] She left government service to practice law in private practice in New York.[3]

On September 28, 1964, Jones was named by President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC),[4] initially through a recess appointment and subsequently through a Senate confirmation.[3] Jones served on the commission until 1973 during both Republican and Democratic administrations.[1][5] She was replaced on the FTC 1973 by Elizabeth Hanford (later Elizabeth Dole).[6]

In 1971, she was named as a potential nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States.[1] In 1981, she served on the Department of the Interior Commission on Fiscal Accountability of the National's Energy Resources, which presented a report to the White House on ways that national oil and gas royalties can be better tracked on public lands.[7][8]

Jones was a vocal consumer advocate.[1] A liberal Republican during her time on the FTC,[9] Jones became a member of the Democratic Party later in life.[1] In 2007, Jones released an autobiography, titled Tearing Down Walls: a Woman's Triumph.[10] In the book, she discusses the difficulty of breaking into the legal professional in the 1940s, during a time when few female graduates were offered roles as practicing attorneys.[10]

Jones died from congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, D.C., on December 23, 2009, at the age of 89.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Fox, Margalit (January 7, 2010). "Mary Gardiner Jones, Consumer Advocate, Dies at 89". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Fair, Lesley (March 8, 2016). "Celebrating Women's History Month at the FTC". FTC Division of Consumer & Business Education.
  3. ^ a b c d e United States Congress Senate Committee on Commerce (1965). Jones Nomination: Hearing Before the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate, Eighty-ninth Congress, First Session, on Nomination of Mary Gardiner Jones, Federal Trade Commission, February 18, 1965. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  4. ^ "Choice for FTC", The New York Daily News (September 29, 1964), p. 8.
  5. ^ Office of Presidential Libraries. Office of Presidential Papers. 1/20/1969-ca. 12/1974 (1969-01-21). 021 January 1-31 1970. Series: Presidential Daily Diary, 1969 - 1974.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ "People and Business". The New York Times. 1973-11-01. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  7. ^ Records of the White House Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff (Reagan Administration), 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989 (1982-01-21). "Correspondence – January 1982 (10)". catalog.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-04-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ National Archives (1982-03-15). "Department of the Interior. Commission on Fiscal Accountability of the National's Energy Resources. 7/8/1981-3/15/1982 Organization Authority Record". catalog.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  9. ^ "Oral History Interview: Mary Gardiner Jones". Federal Trade Commission. 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2021-09-12. I had belonged to my Republican club in the neighborhood because when I got back to New York after law school, it was a social thing and a way of getting back into the community in New York. So I had joined it. Those were my Republican credentials.
  10. ^ a b Jones, Mary Gardiner (2008). Tearing down walls: a woman's triumph. Lanham, Md.: Hamilton Books. ISBN 978-0-7618-3904-0. OCLC 188536215.
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