As East Stroudsburg University’s longtime Dean of Women, Ruth Lillian Jones played a key role in the university's evolution throughout the twentieth century. Born in 1902 in Illinois, Jones attended the Western Illinois State Normal School to be trained as a teacher, graduating in 1921. Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, Jones taught at many schools across Illinois, often involved in student’s theater and drama groups. Arriving at East Stroudsburg State Teacher’s College in 1934, Dean Jones served as the college’s Dean of Women for over three decades, retiring in 1968. Throughout her tenure, Dean Jones was heavily involved in the academic, social, and extracurricular lives of students, leaving a heavy imprint on the campus’ culture. During her career at East Stroudsburg and throughout her retirement, she shared a home in town with ESTC professor Josephine B. Kerns, with whom she had a strong personal connection.

Throughout her long career at ESTC, Dean Jones vigilantly worked to uphold many of the school’s strict social and residential policies. During this era, men and women at the college were required to follow a rigid set of rules laid out in their Student Handbooks, regulating when, where, and how they were permitted to interact. Responding to the changing social norms and student pressure, over her tenure, Dean Jones relaxed some of these policies.