Early Life
Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a child he attended Sts. Peter and Paul School on St. Thomas. After his parents' divorce, he lived with his mother in Detroit, Michigan while his mother did social work for the Detroit Public Schools. During the summer, de Jongh would return to St. Thomas to assist in his father's law firm. He earned an economics degree from Antioch College in Ohio.
De Jongh is a product of Catholic schooling, attending such institutions both on the island and in the United States. During college, he was able to study abroad, and completed an urban study in Yugoslavia and The Netherlands. After graduating from college, de Jongh returned to his ancestral Virgin Islands. He worked for several years as a member of the Economic Development Council, during which he helped receive funding for the preservation of historic Virgin Island buildings, before taking a job with Chase Manhattan. de Jongh first worked as an executive in the company's San Juan, Puerto Rico office before once again returning to the Virgin Islands after earning the position of Consumer Manager of Operations in both the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Under his leadership, Chase placed more emphasis on personal over corporate banking in the Caribbean and increased home mortgage lending.
In 1986, he married Cecile Rene Galiber of St. Croix. They have three children.
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