Birth date: Dec 28, 1934 Death date: Jun 30, 2026
Obituary for Father Herbert Jones O. Carm. In loving memory, we regret to announce the passing of Father Herbert Jones O.Carm., June 30, 2026 in Lawrence, MA at age 91. Father Herb was born December 28, 1934 and was christened Jam Read Obituary
I have 3 great memories of our cousin Jim:
In the spring of 1961, Jim picked me up at my high school, Salesianum in Wilmington, Delaware, and drove us to the Carmelite Monastery farm in Pennsylvania for the weekend. It was raining on the trip, and as we drove North on US 202, a humongous wall of water hit the windshield, displaced from a long, deep puddle through which Southbound traffic was traveling at speed; it startled me greatly. He laughed at my start and said he saw it coming. When we arrived, it was very late; everyone had long retired, and I was shown a room to sleep in. Undressing, I hung my pants over the back of a metal chair, and an enormous cache of change poured out of the pockets, cascading over the chair and onto the floor. Big Ben might have been a little louder, but not that night! In the morning, at breakfast, Jim said he really felt for me because it was such a relatively loud disturbance.
Later that day, I was given some boots to wear around the farm. I shoveled behind the dairy cows - manure had always had a wonderfully sweet smell for me until then - but overturning the new deposits, I was stunned by the ammonia! Everything went into a Louden track litter carrier, which was raised higher with a chain hoist to allow the tub to be pushed outside on its overhead rail and tipped for dumping. The tip was triggered by a cord, and the tub, whose axis was near the bottom, flipped over, spilling everything to the ground. The next time it was to be dumped, they let me hold the tipping cord, and when I pulled it, I became disoriented because I was expecting it to tip to the left again, but it tipped to the right! What a sensitive young lad! I loved that place, and I've thought of it often, and even considered moving there for its Natural, Peaceful way of life.
Another time, in 1964, I was riding with him North on the New Jersey Turnpike - I was in the Navy then. He told me how stunned he was when he heard that this callow boy was in the service. At a rest stop, he bought a Cosmopolitan Magazine, the cover of which announced its coverage on abortion. He told me that if I had any questions, he'd be happy to answer them. Still a young boy, with a Catholic Education, abortion had to do with sex, and that was Verboten! I remained silent.
When our mother died, Jim came down to Wilmington and stayed overnight at my place. With no room, he had slept on the living room couch. I remember our going to dinner at some fast-food place on 202 - very unremarkable - but I was living in kind of survival mode at the time: paycheck to paycheck. That was the last time I saw Jim, but since then I've thought about the selfless effort he made to travel - seemingly from out of nowhere - to join us five kids.
I'm a rather asocial person; computer nerd is very close, and I'm comfortable being alone. So, although I lived in Salem for a while, and even worked in Methuen, I never looked up any of my clan. Ultimately, this has been my loss. I now realize how much Jim could have mentored me - and will from now on.
Michael Bradley
