Daniel D Jordan

Born August 7, 1926 from birth certificate in Des Moines, IA (though he may have been born in a small town just outside--don't recall the name).

Lived in Iowa for his childhood with his family:

Father: Ezra Kelly Jordan
Mother: Agnes May Handlin

Siblings: 2 girl twins who died in infancy (don't know their names), Sister: Erma, Sister: Veda, Sister: Bonnie, Sister: Mary, Brother: Wesley, Brother: Emery
All siblings deceased prior to Daniel.

Married to Delores Kathryn Spicher on May 5, 1950

Son: Daniel David Jordan, Jr., married to Judi Balcerzak, born February 27, 1951
Daughter: Deborah Kay Jordan, married to Hugo Buriel, born October 4, 1962
Daughter: DeAnn Carol Jordan, married to Jeffrey Scott Rebner, born October 27, 1970

Grandchildren

Daniel David Jordan, III, born October 25, 1986, now 28 (to Dan Jr. and previous wife, Rose Ann Vasta)
Marina Ann Sakimoto, born May 21, 1993, now 21 (to Deborah and previous husband, Takeshi Sakimoto)
Elijah David Buriel, born August 2nd, 2005, now 9 (to Deborah and Hugo)

Other milestones:

Was inducted into the US Army in 1945 for 1 year. Was trained for combat and was a good shot, but spent most time as a truck mechanic. Spent some time in Hawaii, but never deployed to Japan as the war ended
before then. Returned home to IA, met and married mom.

Before this was a farmer on the family farm and left school at 8th grade.

Once married and first child born, left Iowa for Colorado due to son's ill health. Worked in various places in
Colorado, including Rocky Flats Nuclear facility (bomb-making), Coors Beer, and Collins Radio.
Both Deborah and DeAnn were born in Colorado before moving to the Phoenix area around 1973. But DeAnn also contracted serious allergies and asthma and family moved to the San Diego area where we lived until Mom's death in 2001. Family relocated to the LA area since then. For a time, Dad lived with Deborah and then in an apartment on his own until this year where he was placed in a nursing home. He was diagnosed with a type of non-hodgkins lymphoma and multiple myeloma in 2013.
While living in the San Diego area, he worked as a sheetmetal worker, foreman, and later as a small business owner of J&J Sheetmetal Company, which was located in Santee for about seven years. DeAnn returned from San Francisco after college and helped manage the company until its closing in 2001. Daniel retired after the business closing and Mom's death that year at the age of 75.

A few notes on his children and grandchildren:

Daniel Jr. earned his PhD in Psychology from Claremont Graduate School and has been working at Ventura County Mental Health Dept for many years. He is married to Judith Balcerzak, also a PhD in Social Work.

Deborah earned a BA in Political Science and Asian Studies from SDSU, lived in Japan for a year and is now living in Riverside with her husband, Hugo and son Elijah. They own a small web-developing company.

DeAnn earned her Masters in English and Creative Writing from Cal State, Northridge and is now a professor of English and Humanities at the Art Institute of California in Hollywood and has published a book of poetry. Her husband, Jeff is an animator/character designer for the TV show, American Dad, produced by Fox Television Animation in Hollywood.

Danny Jordan, III has been living in various places in Europe, most recently Spain; but has been studying music formally at the Royal Academy of Music in Lodon where he is studying to earn his PhD. He has performed with countless orchestras across Europe, most notably piano, his first instrument, but also sings and acts. His permanent home address is at his mother's in British Colombia, Canada.

Marina is currently living in New Zealand with her boyfriend, Joesph. She has many varied interests, but has been producing music on an independent label for her band, Shunkan, which is a blend of independent techno-rock. She plans on starting her college degree soon. She travels a lot, but especially to Japan to see her family there.

Elijah is another gifted student in the family and reads well above grade-level. He loves Legos and video games.

As for all of our collective memories of Dad--the one thing that I think all of us would agree upon that we will remember him most by was his sense of humor. Everyone knew he could tell a story (often over and over again over many years!); but it was his inherent sense of fun that was often mischievous and infectious. There were times he'd already be laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes before he even began the joke.

But aside from his good Irish wit, he was also incredibly strong. He had various jobs that pulled on his ability and skills to figure things out. Despite his 8th grade education, he was gifted as an engineer, a builder of houses and furniture, and generally knew how to fix things. He was tall and strong and a capable leader. Though he wasn't as worldly as his children or grandchildren turned out to be, he did enjoy travel and visited nearly every state in the country. Our childhood car trips were often epic. I think
he fancied himself the romantic old cowboy of the American west, with no one in charge of his life but himself. He was a family man with an independent spirit, but loyal as anyone. Family was everything to him. He gave us stories from his ancestors who came over from Ireland, to life on the farm during the Great Depression, to life during war time. But it was his way to connect with us. As he aged, he may have felt increasingly outside of the new world of technology, but he knew that family and stories are what keep us together and give us our identity. For that gift, among so many others, we are grateful.