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If Randall Kenneth Jones doesn't have the fullest Rolodex in Southwest Florida, his name is certainly on the roll call of those who do.
Jones is the perpetually curious author of the new book “Show Me.” Readers may recognize his name from the “Business Class” profile column he wrote for the Naples Daily News — a role he plans to return to once he wraps up promoting the book.
“My goal all along was to look for the best in people,” says the 54-year-old Jones, a Missouri native. “I am not naïve. I know people have negative qualities, but I prefer to enter my relationships looking for the best sides.”
In writing “Show Me,” he builds on some of the profiles of business people and well-known guests he wrote about in the Daily News. Others he does from scratch.
The most heartfelt of the profiles came from his acquaintances with the late documentary and advertising voice-over artist Peter Thomas and Stella Thomas, his now-deceased wife of 70 years. “He narrated my childhood,” writes Jones of Peter Thomas, the voice behind iconic marketing phrases as “Wouldn't you rather have a Buick?” and “Don't leave home without it.”
Peter Thomas encouraged Jones to pursue voice-over work. Stella Thomas encouraged Jones to have a positive in influence on the people he encounters. “None of us is defined by whether or not our heart is beating, but by who — and what it beats for,” Jones recalls Stella Thomas telling him.
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