Longtime pathologist and former Cook County Medical Examiner Dr. Nancy Jones – the first woman in the prestigious position – died on Wednesday.
Colleagues and friends on Thursday remembered the passionate doctor as kind, smart and hard-working. Friends said she had fallen ill with cancer.
“She was a wonderful, wonderful person and a great administrator,’’ said former Chief Investigator at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office Anthony Brucci, who worked with Jones for more than two decades.
Jones was known for having high ethical standards and an “open-door’’ policy. “She wasn’t hidden away. She was friendly,’’ Brucci said. “She really did her best.’
Jones always wanted to be a forensic pathologist, even before college, Brucci said. And she distinguished herself with her specialty – child abuse cases.
Jones worked at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office for more than 25 years and was appointed to the top spot in 2007 by former County Board President Todd Stroger.
Jones graduated with honors from DePaul University in 1974 and attended Chicago Medical School after working for a few years as a medical technician.
It was during her residency at the University of Chicago that she met and worked with Elliot Weisenberg, an autopsy technician who went on to become a pathologist too.
Jones was a supportive friend to Weisenberg as he went through medical school, he said. He also remembered a lecture she gave on accidental child death where he could tell she felt empathy for the victim.
“She was really sharp and energetic and really, really cared about people and was a very compassionate person,” he said. “You have an autopsy and it’s easy to just sort of put it into the mundane but she really, really cared about the autopsy and what it meant to the family and to patient.”
Johnnie Kearney, an investigator at the medical examiner’s office since 2004, also remembered her fondly.
“She was generally concerned about people and was just very passionate about what she did,’’ Kearney said.
Colleagues recalled her coming in before the sun to greet the midnight shift before they left and working long days.
“She always wanted to know what was going on,” Kearney said.
When Jones took over the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office in 2007, she said she inherited an understaffed and underfunded operation. Her career ended in 2012 amid a controversy over the storage and treatment of bodies.
An investigation by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle found, among other things, that 363 bodies were stored in a cooler designed to hold 300. The review began after employees complained that there were too many bodies in the cooler.
Colleagues and friends still defend Jones, saying she was unfairly treated and not given enough resources to properly run the morgue.
Dr. Stephen Cina, who took over the troubled institution from Jones in 2012, said she was a “victim” in the situation.
Cina said he never met her and she did not want to get involved with the medical examiner’s office after she left.
In a statement, a Cook County spokeswoman extended condolences to Jones’ family and friends.
Jones, who did not have any children and was not married, cared for horses, cats, dogs and rabbits over the years.
“She loved every one of them,” Brucci said of her pets.
Jones was a daily crossword puzzle buff, and acutally liked cold weather.
“She had a love for humanity, which spoke to her job,’’ Kearney said. “She adored her horses, she would care for them, ride them every weekend and tell stories about it,” Kearney said.
"She is gone too soon.”
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