Firefighters mourn death of Eric W. Jones, ‘the mayor’ of Somers Point and Ocean City who didn’t let a little thing like losing a leg slow him down
SOMERS POINT – Losing a leg to cancer as a boy didn’t stop Eric W. Jones from fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming a firefighter.
It didn’t seem to stop him from much of anything.
The Ocean City High School graduate, who went on to graduate from West Virginia State University, realized his boyhood dream by going to the Atlantic County Fire Academy. He didn’t get any special treatment, nor did he need it.
Jones graduated from the academy and joined Somers Point Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, where he went on to serve more than 28 years.
His death on Jan. 21, 2022, caught his friends and colleagues by surprise. Jones was just 49 years old.
On Saturday morning, a procession of fire engines from southern New Jersey departments rolled slowly across the Route 52 causeway, lights flashing, the lead engine, from Somers Point Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, carrying Jones’ white casket.
That engine, the front draped with a black banner, picked up the casket at the funeral home and was accompanied by Somers Point Fire Co. No. 1. Chief Michael Sweeney and the assistant chief’s vehicles. They drove to Fire Station No. 1 in Somers Point, where trucks from Linwood and Margate fire departments had their ladders up, holding a big American flag flying across Bethel Road.
“It was a sea of blue, firefighters standing in front of Somers Point Fire Station No. 1 in their dress blues,” Sweeney said. “We stopped, they saluted, and then they went to their vehicles and the procession started to Ocean City.”
It was bright and sunny around 8:30 a.m. when the procession of fire trucks went from Somers Point across the causeway to Ocean City. A bitter cold wind was blowing, causing the American flag at the Welcome Center to stand at attention as the procession passed. There was representation from departments including all of Egg Harbor Township’s fire companies, Absecon, Northfield, Galloway, Ocean City, Marmora, Seaville and Tuckahoe.
The trucks stopped at Coastal Christian Church, where an honor guard of firefighters lowered the casket from the back of the engine, and escorted it past the fire chief, Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian and his wife, Michele, and Assemblyman Antwan McClellan, who were there to greet the casket and pay their respects.
“Eric was a true friend and inspiration,” McClellan said. “We were neighbors in the Housing Authority growing up. He was literally my next door neighbor. We played baseball together. The summer before he got his leg amputated, we were playing baseball for the Elks Lodge rec team. That whole summer he ran with a limp pretty much, but he was in the outfield running around shagging balls. That fall is when he got the leg amputated.”
McClellan said the operation took place when they were in fourth or fifth grade, but didn’t prove to be an impediment.
“That didn’t stop him at all. You can’t even call it a setback because he continued on like he had both of his legs,” the assemblyman said. “He did everything that he wanted to do when he wanted to do it. We still played and laughed and had a good time together.”
In high school he was a varsity wrestler. “That’s where the nickname ‘Bones’ came from. I know everyone calls him Jonesy, but if he got ahold of you with those arms, you weren’t getting out of it,” McClellan said, laughing. “You felt like your bones were cracking and that’s why his friends from wrestling called him ‘Bones.’”
“He was strong as an ox, absolutely,” he added.
Although McClellan lives in Ocean City and Jones lived five minutes away across the bridge in Somers Point, as they got older they didn’t see each other as often, “but when we did, he had that big smile and he greeted me with a hug.”
Jones’ death, he said, was a “complete surprise, because at that age, we all think we have the time, but God had his plan.”
At Coastal Christian, scores of area firefighters were on hand to pay their respects and show their respect for a valued colleague.
“Eric was one of the good guys,” Somers Point Mayor Jack Glasser said. “You could always depend on him. He will be so missed by our city. He was a great guy. He just meant a lot to Somers Point.”
Glasser said he looked in the eyes of the firefighters and saw their sadness and grief. “You feel for them, but you also feel for all of us because he meant that much. It is a loss not only to the city but to the fire company and all the firefighters in south Jersey,” he said.
“I knew Eric personally. He was the soul of that fire department,” Glasser said.
“He was a very dedicated member for 28 years,” Chief Sweeney said about his long-serving firefighter. “He had adversity in his life, losing his leg to cancer as a young boy, but he never wanted to be treated any different.”
“Eric will climb a ladder, drag a hose, drive a truck,” Sweeney said. “We have a 100-foot ladder truck and Eric has been from the bottom of it to the top numerous times. Countless times. He’s been in burning buildings with his air packs or dragging hose lines on his hands and knee – even though we say hands and knees.
“There was never a hesitation from me if he was my backup man or nozzle man,” the chief added. “Eric was one of us and he overcame a lot of obstacles to get there. And when I say he was given no special consideration, I mean he was given no special consideration.”
“As a young boy Eric grew near the Ocean City fire headquarters. He kind of grew up there, so to speak. He spent a lot of time there,” Sweeney said, and the firefighters “really took to Eric. He always wanted to be a fireman since he was a little boy. And he definitely fulfilled his dream of being a fireman.”
Jones lost his leg not far below his hip and he used a prosthesis to be able to fulfill all of his duties as a firefighters.
“He’s an above-the-knee amputee which makes it more difficult because he was working with two mechanical joints, his ankle and his knee,” Sweeney said.
“He was on the Ocean City High School wrestling team. Basically, Eric always tried everything. I’m almost positive he went skydiving,” Sweeney said. “He counseled at a camp for children with prostheses … because he didn’t want those kids to feel they couldn’t achieve something or do something just because they were missing a limb.”
He also would do story hour at the library in Somers Point, reading books to children.
“He was great with kids,” Sweeney said. “Eric was a very special person, very compassionate. He always wanted everybody to be happy.”
He pointed out one seemingly out-of-place part of the procession – a Scullville Volunteer Fire Company vehicle pulling a trailer carrying a John Deere farm tractor.
“That’s because for countless years Eric has been driving a farm tractor at their haunted hayride and they modified it so he could drive it with one leg,” Sweeney said. “We all referred to that as Jonesy’s tractor.”
The chief said Jones touched a lot of lives. “He had that personality that wherever Eric went, whether he was going to Wawa to grab a cup of coffee or to a fireman’s convention, Eric made a lot of friends. We always joked and called him ‘the mayor’ because everybody in Somers Point and Ocean City knew him.”
Sweeney explained that having an engine carry the casket “is something instilled in the fire service. Eric was more than deserving of that honor. We know and his family knows that’s what Eric would have wanted.”
He acknowledged the extra pomp and circumstance and all of the firefighters in uniform can make the funeral more emotional for the family, “but it’s just that Eric was a firefighter and he deserved his pallbearers to be firefighters and to have the honor guard. He deserved all of that.
“We really miss him already. He’s with us. He hasn’t left us, but it’s just a little different now.”
Jones, the chief said, “was genuinely one of the greatest people I’ve ever known. When I spoke at his services, I truly meant that I am a better man for having known him. He’s taught me some things … I’ll carry on for the rest of my life. He’s just a person who never took no for an answer because of a physical limitation.”
Survivors include his father, Billy Dewitt (Jackie) of Chattahoochee, Fla.; stepfather Edward Pinkman of Blackwood; brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins, many of them from southern New Jersey. The Rev. Gregory H. Johnson Sr. officiated at the services at Coastal Christian.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
