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Awards & Recognition

2023

– The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the State of North Carolina’s highest award
– Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, and listed in Marquis Who’sWho 2023 edition (125th anniversary)

2022

– Selected along with 29 others as New Hanover High School’s Outstanding Alumni during school’s Centennial celebration

2021

– University of North Carolina Wilmington Distinguished Citizen of the Year for 2021

– AARP North Carolina 2020 Coastal Inspiration Award – Veterans Exemplary Service

– Named Outstanding Alumni of Hanover High School

2020

– Wilmington Rotary Club RISE Award: Rotarian In Service Excellence

2017

Society Cup, by the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society for outstanding preservation of local history, 2017

Battlefield tours – International Experience:
— Visited WWII sites in Italy (Salerno to Cassino/Anzio) and South England, 2017*

2016

Battlefield tours – International Experience:
— Visited WWII sites in the Bordeaux, Rhone, and Provence regions of France, 2016*
* Wrote articles for Wilmington StarNews upon return

2015 

Battlefield tours – International Experience:

— Visited WWII sites in London (for 70th anniversary of V-E Day) and Normandy, 2015*
*Filed StarNews article from London

2014

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory appointed Jones as Chairman of the USS North Carolina Battleship Commission. The Commission oversees and monitors the operations, maintenance, and plans of North Carolina’s state memorial to the 10,000 Tar Heels who died in uniform in World War II.

2013

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory appointed Jones as Vice Chairman of the USS North Carolina Battleship Commission.

2012

WWII Wilmington Home Front Heritage Coalition board members at StarNews Media's Lifetime Achievement Awards luncheon, July 12, 2012. L to R: Al Butler, counsel; Wilbur Jones, chairman; Doris Ayers, vice chairman; Jean Lawler; John Meyer; Jennifer Presnell, treasurer; Mary Ellen Simmons, district representative for Congressman Mike McIntyre.
WWII Wilmington Home Front Heritage Coalition board members at StarNews Media’s Lifetime Achievement Awards luncheon, July 12, 2012. L to R: Al Butler, counsel; Wilbur Jones, chairman; Doris Ayers, vice chairman; Jean Lawler; John Meyer; Jennifer Presnell, treasurer; Mary Ellen Simmons, district representative for Congressman Mike McIntyre.

Wilmington StarNews Media Lifetime Achievement Award (READ MORE)

Congressional Record, U.S. House of Representatives, A Tribute to Captain Wilbur D. Jones, by Rep. Mike McIntyre (7th District, N.C.)

2011
Along with wife Carroll Robbins Jones, inducted into the E. L. White Society, an organization of UNC Wilmington which honors donors of $25,000 or more through planned giving.

Named a Rotary Paul Harriss Fellow for donations supporting the Rotary Foundation.

2010
National Defense Medal, United Daughters of the Confederacy.

2009
WWIIWHFHC awarded Society Cup of the Historical Society of the Lower Cape Fear for outstanding history preservation accomplishments.

2008
Bronze Good Citizenship Medal from Lower Cape Fear Chapter, The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Wilmington, N. C.

2007
Production of the 2010 Steven Spielberg-Tom Hanks HBO mini-series “The Pacific” used the book Gyrene: The World War II United States Marine, as a “technical reference manual” to train actors. Spielberg wrote Jones a thank-you letter for writing the book.

2006
National Award of Merit for Leadership in History, American Association for State and Local History, 2006 – for books on World War II North Carolina and history preservation accomplishments

Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Anzio-Nettuno, Italy. Gravesite of Capt. Henry Churchill Bragaw, 36th Infantry Division, 1944, Wilmington resident. 2007.

Clarendon Award, Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, Wilmington – for best regional history book, The Journey Continues: The World War II Home Front

Senior Service Award, Elderhaus, Wilmington

2005
North Carolina Historian of the Year (East), North Carolina Society of Historians

Three other NCSH awards for the book, The Journey Continues; newspaper op-ed pieces and other articles in Wilmington Star-News; and to the World War II Wilmington Home Front Heritage Coalition (chairman)

WWIIWHFH Coalition statewide award, Federation of North Carolina Historical Societies – for history preservation

2003
Statewide book award for A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs of a Wartime Boomtown, NCSH

2000
Society Cup to Wartime Wilmington Commemoration 1999, Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, 2000 (served as chairman for preservation organization)

Two statewide awards to WWC 1999, NCSH – for history preservation