Jerry Niles Jordan

It would be difficult to try to boil Jerry Niles Jordan down to a few adjectives, but if one had to choose, one would say that he was curious, hardworking, generous, and welcoming. He was born in 1929 in Wink, Texas. He was the son of a self-made oilman and a Red Cross Desert Rat Volunteer (a volunteer selected from across the nation to assist soldiers testing atomic bombs in the 1950s). Jerry took his education seriously and graduated Highland Park High School at sixteen. He was an Eagle Scout, played the clarinet, and competed in debates and performing short plays. He attended Vanderbilt University where he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, pledged Kappa Alpha, and served as Co-Editor of the Annual, President of the Student Council, President of the Engineering Senior Class. 

Jerry then went to Southern Methodist University to obtain a law degree.  At SMU, he served on the Southwestern Law Journal, the Blue Key, and the Barristers. While he originally intended to pursue patent law, he quickly learned that his interests lay more in general practice. By the time he graduated law school in 1952, the US was embroiled in the Korean War, and he decided to join the Air Force. He served as a legal officer at the Edwards Airforce Base, and he was proud to say that during his tenure, he upheld a speeding ticket from Chuck Yeager, who had previously broken the sound barrier. While at the Base, he met a beautiful schoolteacher, Mary Crowell. They dated for three months before he proposed in Spanish. She knew Spanish well enough to know that he asked her either to marry him or to go the movies, and she accepted as both ideas appealed to her.

Jerry and Mary wed on June 25, 1955, and the couple moved to Dallas, where he joined the firm Turner, Rodgers, Winn, Scurlock & Terry. He became a partner after seven years, and after another 21 years, he broke off to be a founding partner in Jordan, Dunlap, Prather, and Harris. He served the Dallas Bar Association as Vice President, where he initiated the acquisition of the Belo Mansion.  He won the Fellows Justinian Award in 2013 from the Dallas Bar Foundation in honor of an attorney who demonstrated the highest level of professional excellence.

While he grew his career as a young lawyer, his family also grew. Mary and Jerry raised two daughters, Jill and Jan. The couple also were part owners of a car that won the Indianapolis 500 and an ice cream parlor. Jerry helped start a community theater and starred in numerous plays at HPPC. Jerry was active in the Jaycees, the Big D Toastmasters Club, and UP Dad’s Club, and was a deacon and Sunday School teacher for high school students at HPPC. Jerry led the effort to raise funds for building the Kappa Kappa Gamma house on the Vanderbilt Campus.  Alongside his mother, Jerry volunteered with the Dallas Committee for International Visitors, where he spent over fifty years welcoming visitors from around the world. From Venezuelan judges to Malaysian economists, he ensured that visitors could learn about the United States and its people. Jerry and Mary loved to travel across the globe often visiting the people who they had hosted in Dallas. Jerry also enjoyed taking people to Wolfpen farm, where he started the Wolfpen Hunting, Fishing, Eating, and Lying Club of Sulphur Bluff Texas.  His nickname at Wolfpen was Big Fish because of his love of fishing.

Jerry was a one-of-a-kind gentleman who was warm, welcoming, and devoted to making a more connected world.  He will be sorely missed.

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