Robert Alvin Jordan was always on a quest for knowledge, family and friends said.
As an educator, he was an outspoken advocate for students and teachers.
As a jazz enthusiast, he amassed an extensive collection of jazz albums and devoted his life to supporting and preserving the history of the original American art form.
“He probably had the best collection of jazz LPs I have ever seen,” said friend and fellow Atlanta jazz enthusiast Ralph Rice. “Everyone looked up to him and picked his brain for information. He was my mentor. Jazz was his No. 1 hobby, but he studied lots of things. Jazz was his vehicle to study African-American history because that’s what jazz is.”
Jordan died of a heart attack on Nov. 29 at the age of 82. His funeral was Dec. 8 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
An Atlanta native, Jordan was born on Dec. 4, 1932. He was the youngest of five children in a family that believed in higher education and hard work.
His father James E. Jordan, a business pioneer during Sweet Auburn’s heyday, opened the city’s first black-owned department store, founded a hair-care line and operated a photography studio.
After high school, Jordan served a two-year stint in the Army, from 1956 to 1958. He received a bachelor’s degree from Clark College and a master’s degree from Atlanta University. He later earned a social worker’s certificate from the University of Georgia and attended John Marshall Law School.
He started his career as an elementary school teacher in Fulton County for six years and then worked nearly 30 years as a teacher and social worker for Atlanta Public Schools until retirement.
During his tenure, he served as vice president of the Atlanta Association of Educators and was a member of the Georgia Association of Educators.
The retired educator wrote guest opinion columns for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calling for education reform. In a series of 2001 columns, he criticized politicians and school administrators for unfairly targeting teachers and called on parents to help address discipline and academic achievement.
His commitment to education also extended to his love of jazz. He began collecting jazz LPs in 1947 at the age of 15. His collection of many thousand albums spans the gamut of jazz styles from swing and bebop to Afro-Cuban and avant-garde.
His favorites were the old classics, said his wife Edna Jordan. He would spend hours listening to jazz, sometimes playing along on his clarinet while listening to the tunes on his record player. Sarah Vaughn was his all-time favorite.
As a member of the Jazz Disciples, Jazz Forum and Jazz Lovers organizations, Jordan lectured at schools, churches and some nightclubs.
In the 1980s he hosted a jazz show called “The Band is Big” on Clark Atlanta University’s WCLK radio station. He also hosted jazz shows on WYZE and WRNG.
“His biggest contribution was his radio show,” said friend and fellow jazz aficionado George McDonald of Atlanta. “Some radio listeners liked to hear him talk about jazz more than listen to the music because he could give such a complete history of it. We realized that we couldn’t get people to like jazz, but we wanted them to respect it.”
An avid reader and Civil War history buff, Jordan also loved model trains, movies and spirited discussions on past and current events.
He also was a devoted member of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he served as a deacon, trustee and Sunday school teacher and rarely missed a Sunday, said his niece Daryll Griffin of Norcross.
“He was a learned person. He will be remembered for his sense of integrity, his warm smile and ability to converse on any subject. He’s going to be missed,” Griffin said.
Jordan is survived by Edna Fraley Jordan, his wife of 53 years.
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