George Jordan, Sr.

George Cook Jordan, Sr., 88, of Prairie Village, Kansas, passed away on Sunday, September 7, 2008, at Research Medical Center. A Mass will be offered at 10 a.m. Friday, September 12, 2008, at St. Ann's Catholic Church, 7231 Mission Road, Prairie Village, Kan. Friends may call from 6-8 p.m. Thursday at D.W. Newcomer's Sons Overland Park Chapel, with a rosary recitation beginning at 5:30 p.m. A private burial will be in Johnson County Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to the following: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, TX 77210- 4486, at www.mdanderson.org, or The Inner City Education Foundation, 5150 W. Goldleaf Circle, Suite 401, Los Angeles, CA 90056-1662, at the website www.icefla.org. Mr. Jordan was born December 21, 1919, in Kansas City, Mo., the son of John Weaver and Lillian O'Brien Jordan. In 1937, he became a graduate of Pembroke Country Day School, and graduated from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. in 1941. Thereafter, he joined the U.S. Army, where ultimately he achieved the rank of Captain. Mr. Jordan began his business career in Kansas City, Mo., with the Gustin Bacon Manufacturing Company, and in 1955, he joined the George T. Cook Company, a manufacturer's representative of industrial products with offices at Kansas City, Mo., and Wichita, Kan. He became a partner there and retired from the company in 1995. Throughout his adult life, Mr. Jordan was active in civic affairs and he devoted significant amounts of his time to various charitable organizations including the Girl Scouts of America and Wayside Waifs. He also served as a fund raiser or finance committee member for local, state and national Republican candidates. At various times, he acted as a trustee of The Barstow School and The Pembroke Hill School. In later life, he held a particular interest in helping inner city children and in 2007 started The Bette and Cook Jordan Scholarship at the Inner City Education Foundation of Los Angeles, Calif. His dear friends were the energy of his life and with many of them he shared membership in The Kansas City Club, The Kansas City Country Club, The Duck Club of Mound City, Mo., and Oxbow Farms at LaCygne, Kan. Mr. Jordan was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Elizabeth Bresnahan Jordan. He is survived by: a daughter, Daly Jordan O'Brien of Fairway, Kan.; a son, John Weaver Jordan II and his wife Gretchen Sandin Jordan of Chicago, Ill.; a son, George Cook Jordan, Jr. of Chicago, Ill.; a daughter, Elizabeth O'Brien Jordan of Chicago, Ill.; seven grandchildren, Shannon Kelly O'Brien, Sean Bresnahan O'Brien and his wife Kimberly Frazier O'Brien, John Weaver Jordan III and his wife Megan Elizabeth Jordan, Jennifer Lynn Jordan, and Colby Elizabeth Jordan; and a great granddaughter, Jordan Elizabeth O'Brien.

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