Otto Jones – RIP The guy was awesome; bigger than life; a pioneer in every sense.

Abstract

Otto Jones passed away recently at the age of 83. Few have contributed more to the field of employee assistance and workplace counseling. He served in the Marines, attended Dixie State College and got his MSW from the University of Utah. In 1969 he started the INSIGHT program, an internal EAP at Kennecott Copper in Salt Lake City serving 1200 employees. After a few years of successful interventions and returning guys to their jobs, Otto took the program external and named it Human Affairs Inc. or HAI (in 1985 changing the Inc. to Int’l), and expanded first to serve US Steel in South Chicago. He hired Barb Lavelle to lead the US Steel program there, and established the for- mula that seemed to mark his career—get good people and get out of their way. Glen Roderick in Cleveland (Standard Oil), Larry Stockman in Houston (Exxon), Kathleen Stevens, then Tom Cooper and Jodie Collins in Dallas (Diamond Shamrock & ARCO), Drew Cannon in Boise (Idaho Power & Boise Cascade), Art Lysne in Spokane, Daryl Logan in Anchorage (Exxon), Nancy Osman in Philadelphia (Bell Telephone), Monica Guidry in Houston (SOHIO), Lance Ness in Whippany (Exxon), and so many more—all folks who were instrumental in the evolution of EAP. At the Salt Lake headquarters, Otto added three key MSWs: Howard Worthen, Jay Youell, and Betty Lynn Davis to increase management—never a passion for Otto but the start of needed infrastructure for the growing company.