The pioneer of in vitro fertilization (Dr Howard Jones) is dead on HWN SPOTLIGHT

Dr. Howard Jones, who pioneered in vitro fertilization in the United States, died on Friday at a Virginia hospital. He was 104.

Eastern Virginia Medical School said Jones died of respiratory failure.

The work of Jones and his late wife, Dr. Georgeanna Jones, at EVMS in Ghent, Va., led to the nation’s first child born as a result of in vitro fertilization in 1981. Since then, more than 5 million births have stemmed from in vitro fertilization around the world.

Jones continued to keep office hours at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at EVMS even after he was 100.

Over his life, he wrote 12 books, including a memoir about in vitro fertilization that was published last fall.