Who was Frederick McKinley Jones?

Frederick McKinley Jones. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. One of the most prolific inventors in America is someone few Americans — and people around the world for that matter — have heard of.
Did you know Frederick Jones was the first African American refrigerator engineer?
In 1944, Frederick Jones became the first African American elected to the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers. Did You Know? In 1991, Frederick Jones was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Technology, becoming the first African American to receive the honor. Who Was Frederick Jones?

What happened to Frederick Jones' father?

His father struggled to raise him on his own, but by the time Frederick was 7 years old, he sent young Jones to live with a priest in Kentucky. Two years later, his father died. This living situation lasted for two years. At the age of 11, with minimal education under his belt, Jones ran away to fend for himself.

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Frederick McKinley Jones was born on May 17, 1893, to an Irish father, John Jones, and an African American mother. By the time he was 7 years old, his mother had deserted the family, and his father sent him to live with a Catholic priest in a rectory in Covington, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.
How old was Bob Jones when he left the rectory?
After he was virtually orphaned at the age of seven, he was raised by a priest at a Catholic rectory in Cincinnati. Jones left school after 6th grade and left the rectory to return to Cincinnati at age 11, where he got a job first as a cleaning boy and by age 14 he was working as an automobile mechanic.
Frederick Jones was an inventor best known for the development of refrigeration equipment used to transport food and blood during World War II. Who Was Frederick Jones? After a challenging childhood, Frederick Jones taught himself mechanical and electrical engineering, inventing a range of devices relating to refrigeration, sound and automobiles.