Nobody thought Robert Jones would live after he was struck by an SUV while riding his road bike on Highway 1, suffering severe head injuries, three years ago.

But the UC Santa Cruz police captain surprised everyone — except maybe his wife, Toni — by learning to chew and swallow again, by taking steps with others' help and by sounding out vowels, oh and ah.

He grinned at people he liked and scowled when someone asked him a dumb question. In November, friends and family pushed Jones 177 miles in his custom wheelchair to raise money for the Fallen Officer Foundation. He made appearances at golf tournaments held in his honor and went surfing with the Ride-A-Wave program.

"He didn't stick around not to live, so live is what we are going to do," Toni had said of their life.

But a month ago, his health began to slip and Tuesday night, Jones died peacefully in his Aptos home with his wife, his family and friends at his side.

He was 52.

"Robert is off to his next adventure," Toni said.

Born Robert McDowell Jones, he was a man's man, an athlete, according to his friends. He was MVP on his high school football team and held a black belt in martial arts. He was an avid surfer and bicyclist. He played golf, but more because of the camaraderie than the game. It was a little too slow for him.

He married Toni six years ago and they bought their dream house on a hill in Aptos two weeks before his accident. He was riding a new road bike on his favorite route up Highway 1 north of Santa Cruz when a Toyota SUV, driven by a 19-year-old woman, drifted onto the shoulder of the road and hit him on Jan. 2, 2004.

He was in a coma for three-and-a-half months.

Back home, Jones worked hard to learn to speak and walk again — sounding out letters with a speech therapist, grunting when he wanted Toni to help him stand up so he could practice walking, learning to chew so he could be weaned from his feeding tube. Sometimes, he would howl in frustration, but he always tried again.

"Are we going for it?" his wife would ask.

Most of the time, he nodded his head yes.

More than one person who knew him called him an "inspiration"

Then, in 2006, seizures began to grip Jones for hours and weeks at a time. They exhausted him and made it impossible for him to do his therapy. "It was like everything hit reverse," Toni said.

Instead of fighting, she figured her husband was just taking a different path. That's when she and a group of friends organized a fundraising journey from Santa Cruz to San Luis Obispo.

Jones had never liked to sit still.

For nine days, friends pushed Jones in his chair — along busy highways and nearly empty country roads. Jones smiled when his three high school buddies showed up for one day and grunted in annoyance when women volunteers fussed over him.

"At home, he just sleeps and sleeps," Toni said as she drove a support vehicle behind Jones and the small band of helpers. "It could be his system shutting down. His body is just tired"

But the race seemed to revive him. When the group arrived in San Luis Obispo and was greeted by a local police officer, he sat up straighter in his chair.

Four months later, on the day before he died, friends and family began to show up at his Mediterranean-style home, talking to him, holding vigil, sleeping on the floor. Twenty people were there when he died.

"We lost a great man," said high school friend Mike Mulkey. "But we all know he is in a better place — whole and renewed. Heaven will be a bit brighter with him there"

"He is my hero and my inspiration," said Toni on Wednesday. "He has taught me everything that is real and important"

His life, she said, was "well-lived"

Contact Peggy Townsend at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .