Don and Phil Jordan: Brothers Who Joined to Serve

By Marty Armstrong for Hometown magazine

(Author’s note: Having Jordans in my family tree, I months ago decided to seek some other surname for this article about “J” siblings in service. In my own family tree, I had one Jordan uncle and several non-Jordan uncles who served plus a few more Jordan cousins, not brothers, several steps removed farther out on the branches. Better, I thought, to see what could be found by researching a different source of local servicepersons’ names. The path that led, ultimately, to Don and Phil Jordan follows.)

It seemed that Circle Hill Cemetery would produce an abundance of World War II veterans’ names. FindAGrave.org currently shows a total of 8,661 memorials (grave sites) in the combined Circle Hill and former Fairview and Greenwood Cemeteries and the American Legion Memorial Plot for veterans. This impressive site in Bell Township is off Route 36 just south of Punxsutawney. Typically, users of the free FindAGrave website, owned by Ancestry.com®, search for specific names of ancestors they suspect are located within by using the website’s search box. If a full name is not known, one can enter just a surname; the result will include those born with that surname, including married women. This is very helpful when broadly researching who’s who on a family tree. Results include full names, birth and death dates, and family connections, if known. Clicking on a single individual sometimes leads to full obituaries and quantities of photographs contributed by families or volunteer researchers.

Finding a surname to research requires a different approach. Entering “J” in the surname search box brings up in alphabetical order all memorials at Circle Hill beginning with “J” (274). Of those, a surprising number (57) were Jordans, only three less than can be found in the much smaller Olive Cemetery with 825 memorials in nearby Oliveburg where one would expect to see many Jordan memorials. In scrolling through the names, two recognizable Punxsutawney businessmen’s names popped out.

Donald R. and Phil M. Jordan were the only two sons of Joe Johns Jordan and Jeannette Mallory Jordan; the family lived in Punxsutawney on North Jefferson Street where Joe and his brother, Paul, worked with their father in the Jordan Funeral Home. Both sons of Joe and Jeannette joined the service during WWII, served overseas, and came home to live and work in Punxsutawney.

The older brother, Don, graduated from Punxsutawney High School in 1939. While a student in the General Curriculum, he participated in the Athletic Association and the Aviation Club. His 1941 draft registration reveals a young, six-foot-tall man with brown hair and blue eyes, employed then by

Donald Robert Jordan (1920-2000), son of Joe Johns Jordan and Jeannette Mallory Jordan, served in the U.S. Army during WWII in the 834th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion. (1939 Punxsutawney High School “Mirror” photograph from the Yearbook collection of the Punxsutawney Area Historical & Genealogical Society) his father as an apprentice. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in August 1943 and served overseas from January 1945 to March 1946 in the 834th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion. In 1940 he had been married to the former Charlotte Gourley who predeceased him in 1973. They had one daughter, JoAnn, named partially, one suspects, for her paternal grandfather. Don later married the former Ann Lanzendorfer who died in 2018.

Phil, the younger son, graduated in 1944 from Punxsutawney High School where he pursued the Industrial Arts program and participated in the Athletic Association. His post-war draft card describes another young, six-foot-tall man with a ruddy complexion, brown hair, and hazel eyes. In May 1944, Phil enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After training, he served overseas in the Pacific Theatre of Operations as a Gunners Mate 3C aboard the destroyer, U.S.S. Hobby, which operated in the South Pacific in the areas of the Philippine and Formosa islands in concert with U.S. Naval aircraft carriers. He was married to the former Helen Crawford in 1945 when on a brief furlough. They had one son, John Paul (1948-2009) who also

Phil Mallory Jordan (1926-2007), son of Joe Johns Jordan and Jeannette Mallory Jordan, served in the U.S. Navy during WWII on the destroyer, U.S.S. Hobby. (1944 Military photograph from the WWII clipping files of the Punxsutawney Area Historical & Genealogical Society) served in the military. Phil and Helen died in 2007 and 2020, respectively. They are all interred at Circle Hill Cemetery.

Interestingly, a newspaper clipping from June 1946 states that the brothers had joined together to open up a business, the Jordan Sport Shop, located in the Park Building on East Mahoning Street in the area where the Civic Center is now located. Don continued with this business for many years. Additionally, he served as a Jefferson County Communication dispatcher and, later, Punxsutawney Borough Police dispatcher. He was a life member of Central Fire Company (to which his father, Joe, belonged and which his grandfather, Carl, had helped to establish), a member of the First English Lutheran Church, John W. Jenks Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Punxsutawney, Coudersport Consistory, and Jaffa Shrine of Altoona. Meanwhile, Phil is described in his obituary as having had a decades-long career, which included 25 years in banking at Punxsutawney National Bank and 15 years in finance. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church.

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