Saul "Aaron" Jones

Saul “Aaron” Jones was born in Carmichael, CA June 8, 1966, to Mary and Bob Jones, and passed in Roseville, CA July 29, 2021. He had a rewarding career in information technology for the State of California as a Security Architect and an Information Security Officer.
He had a life long love of sports: track, pole vault, baseball, and softball, and was an avid snowboarder, golfer, and cyclist. He crewed in sail boat races for his step father Stan Starkey. Friendly and outgoing, he loved to travel the world and meet people from all cultures. Handsome and charming, he loved fast cars, pretty women, and things that go boom.
Aaron was very loving to his family and friends, who miss him dearly. He always came to family parties with flowers for the ladies. He is sorely missed by his sister Sarah Jones, mother Mary (Jones) Starkey, father Bob Jones, and by his aunts, uncles, cousins, and his many friends.
Services will be held at 10:00AM, on Saturday, August 7, at Price Funeral Chapel, 6335 Sunrise Blvd, Citrus Heights, CA 95670, followed by interment at Fair Oaks Cemetery, 7780 Olive St, Fair Oaks, CA 95628, and a reception at the family home afterward. Friends and family are welcome. If you would like to make a donation in Aaron's memory, please use the link below for The ALS Association Greater Sacramento Chapter.

To view the live-stream of Aaron's service, please visit this page on the day of his service and you will see the link at the bottom to view. It will go live 9:40AM. 

Below is the eulogy that was read by Aaron's Sister, Sarah and written by from his Mother, Mary:

“I can’t help it, I’m just a guy”

Aaron passed away from complications of ALS, he said it’s also known as “cosmic bad luck”.

My son Aaron was my darling, no mother could ask for a better son. He could make every person feel like they were the most important person in the world. Aaron was always there to celebrate with me in happy times, comfort me in sad times, and support me in difficult times. I could always count on him to show up when I needed something, albeit two hours late. He took care of his sister Sarah and me, and looked out for us with his kind heart and generous spirit.

Aaron was a protector. His career in the State government focused on keeping the State’s databases safe and secure, protected from hackers and bad actors, as well as uninformed users. He was serious about his work, and well known and respected in his profession. He was never happier than when he was spinning his propeller. He had excellent technical expertise and a strong work ethic, and kept current with new technologies and strategies as they developed in the industry. You rarely saw him more excited than when he got to go to hacker conferences. Securing the State’s databases was very important to him. He loved architecting systems that were safe, secure, and would be efficient and easy to use. He was honest and hard working and had a strong sense of fair play. He had many friends in multiple state agencies.

Aaron was kind and clever, and preferred non-confrontational problem resolution. Early in his career he was network administrator at the Office of State Hospital Planning and Development, managing the network and ensuring that it was secure and only being used for state business. These were the days before 9/11, when our world was a gentler place. Aaron noticed that some users were installing unauthorized software on their State computers. Rather than be “that guy” and issue a nag note, he wrote a routine to uninstall it overnight so when the employees came in the office in the morning, their software had disappeared. After a few times reinstalling it only to have it disappear again, they’d finally just scratch their heads and give up. Aaron got his way, and there was no trouble or hard feelings.

Aaron was very playful, and he loved sports. As a child he played little league, then in high school and college he ran track, wrestled, and pole vaulted. When he came to work for the state he played in the softball leagues and played golf with his friends, and with me. He was an avid snowboarder, golfer and cyclist, and he loved to work out at the gym. He followed professional football, baseball, and basketball, and loved watching car races and driving fast.

Aaron loved to travel and explore the world, and he inspired me to travel too. In the 1990s he often joined me in my annual trip to our family time share on Maui to swim in the ocean, snorkel, play golf, and watch the sunset into the clouds on Mount Haleakala. Because Aaron came along, we also flew to the other islands, to surf at Waikiki Beach on Oahu, and watch the Kilauea Volcano erupt at night on the big island of Hawaii.

In 2000 he went to Germany and traveled around Europe with his good friends Pat and Shirl. When he returned he said “Mom I want to show you something”. What he wanted to show me that there was more to the world than California and Hawaii, and that I could go see it. So we bought round trip tickets from San Francisco to Paris, and that was the end of our travel arrangements, except we that were to make three lists: must see, would like to see, and if we have time we’ll see. We bought train tickets and made hotel reservations as we traveled. Starting in Paris, we visited the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Palace of Versailles. We rode on the ferris wheel, took a boat ride on the Seine, and visited every art gallery, museum, and church we could find. We sat in sidewalk cafes, listened to jazz in the underground, and rode on the metro. After we saw everything we wanted to in Paris, we moved on to London, and then Amsterdam. It felt so free and was so much fun. I really learned from my son Aaron. He started me traveling in the world, and I’m forever grateful.

Aaron loved dogs, affectionately calling them all “Fuzz Head”, and he socially engineered me into getting a mini goldendoodle puppy. Once his illness was diagnosed, he knew he wouldn’t be here much longer to watch over us, so he decided that we needed a dog to take over the job. Thus began a two year campaign of intermittent tweets and texts of adorable little puppies. His efforts finally paid off and the three of us took a road trip down to San Diego the weekend after July 4th meaning to just pick out a puppy but ending up driving back with one in the back seat with Sarah. Aaron named the puppy Studley Dudley, because Goldy isn’t a boy name no matter many Ys are in it, and Sarah is raising and training him, so he answers to Booger and Mr. Malfunction.

Aaron was kind and loving to his family. He showed up at lunch time on his grandmother’s 94th birthday with ice cream for her – three flavors to choose from (he knew I’d be there) but his grandma got first choice. When she was passing he stood the death watch with me. He has always been there for me and his death leaves a big Aaron shaped hole in my heart.

ALS is a cruel disease. It robbed him of his ability to snowboard, golf, cycle, and scuba dive. It muted his voice and made his lovely witticisms difficult. It turned the joy of a meal into a chore. But it did not take his spirit. He faced the disease with courage and grace. He didn’t like to talk about his illness, but chose to focus on what he was still able to do, like taking up drone flying when he could longer golf or go boarding.

His good and long time friends Bill and Florence Peng and his DMV family took good care of him during his illness, for this I thank them. He loved many people and had many friends. He was quick with a joke, had a knack for putting people at ease, and was rarely seen without his trademark grin. The world was a better place for his having been in it. I will always keep Aaron in my heart.

Thank you for coming. Thank you for being his friends.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Saul "Aaron" Jones, please visit our floral store.