CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has impacted thousands of lives over the last 15 decades. In the last eight and a half years, Chancellor Robert Jones has made it his mission to build relationships with students, and to pave paths to success in innovative ways.

Over the summer, he will move west for a new opportunity, but not without looking back on his career in higher education.

It all started when he was a kid growing up in Georgia, dreaming of being a scientist one day. He pursued a degree in agriculture, and eventually ran labs and moved to several different universities.

“Over the course of the next decade, I got pulled slowly but surely into administrative issues, global, academic administrative issues, and the rest is history,” he said.

Jones joined the Illinois family in 2016 and knows there is a lot to be proud of during that time.

But, what he’s most proud of came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. U of I researchers created a salvia-based test where students regularly spit in tubes. That way, they could be cleared to enter buildings and go to class.

“Was one of the most fundamental things I’ve ever experienced in higher education,” Jones said.

It wasn’t just testing that came out of the pandemic, so did a new nickname. The students started calling him “Papa Jones.”

“I’m not sure how I felt about that initially, but I think it was symbolic of the sense of connection they felt to this place and the connection they had to me as Chancellor,” he said.

Being approachable was one of his biggest goals, and hopes that continues at the University of Washington.

“I had not planned to go and pursue another opportunity, but things happen. I was heavily recruited for this opportunity,” he added.

No matter what, he will always remember his time in orange and blue and as the first African American chancellor on the U of I campus. He hopes other Illini walk away feeling a sense of pride and inspiration for wherever their journey leads next.

“If I can do it, anyone can do it,” he said.

His five-year contract at Washington starts in August.