Gaines-Jones Scholars (GJS) is a nonprofit 501(c)3 public charity founded in 2001 by Anita Jones Roehrick and husband Robert M. Roehrick in memory of of Anita’s mother Mrs. Irene Gaines Jones, her sister Dr. Betty Jean Jones, and her father Mr. Silas J. Jones.
The GJS mission is awarding college scholarships to African-American students in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southwest Georgia, with the goal of bridging their financial aid gap — often $1–2,000 that hinders advancement to graduation — and/or reducing their student loan debt burden.
Since 2004, more than 300 awards have been funded, totaling upwards of $400,000 (as of 2025) with an average $1,200 per scholarship. Many scholars receive subsequent year scholarships and some receive scholarships for all four years of undergraduate, plus post-graduate study, as well as medical school.
Our secondary mission is providing advocacy and support to students and their families in the form of online workshops on subjects such as: writing, financial aid, and outside scholarships. Some GJS scholars are the first in their family to attend college and benefit from advice navigating the system.
Education was the nucleus of their southwest Georgia family under the leadership of Anita’s mother, Mrs. Irene Gaines Jones, lovingly known to many as Ms. Irene, a sixth-grade teacher/librarian in Worth County for 39 years.
Anita’s sister, Dr. Bettye Jean Jones, was Professor of Theater and Associate Dean of Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, when she was tragically killed in a plane crash returning from the Senior Theatre USA Conference in Las Vegas in January 1997.
Joining Bettye on her business trip to Las Vegas in January 1997, Mr. Silas J. Jones, had this to say after the accident:
“I was the last family member to see her alive. We flew into the Cincinnati airport together, then we split up. She hugged my neck and said, ‘Daddy, I’ll call you when you get home. I’ll beat you home.’ That’s the last thing she said to me. ‘I’ll beat you home.'”
A word from our founders
We run our public charity out of our home office in the San Francisco Bay area with very low overhead and a bi-coastal Board of Directors.
Over our 20-plus years of giving, we have awarded more than $400,000 in scholarships and discretionary grants to more than 180 studentsin Southwest Georgia and the San Francisco Bay Area.
It is such an honor to work with our dynamic team bringing new mentoring programs to Gaines-Jones Scholars — and their friends! — such as our RIGHT-to-WRITE program providing one-on-one writing sessions via video chat and phone with our Board members and a corps of volunteers led by the erudite writer and grammar guru, Constance Hale.
In 2021, we launched the Barbara D. Roehrick Memorial Teacher Award to honor Rob’s late mother who had a lifelong appreciation and devotion for education.
Please join us on this journey: Donate Today.
— Anita Jones Roehrick, Gaines-Jones Executive Director
— Rob Roehrick, Gaines-Jones Trustee
