Longtime Mobile, Ala. port official Robert Jordan passed away May 23 while an inpatient at Providence Hospital in Mobile. He was 81 years old.
Brother Jordan joined the Seafarers as a charter member in 1938 in his native Mobile. His book number was J0001. A member of the engine department, Brother Jordan sailed in the deep sea division. While at sea, he worked as a fireman, oiler and watertender. Among the vessels on which he sailed early in his SIU career were the S.S. Lebore, Alcoa Cadet, Alcoa Master, and the Hastings.
“I first met him in 1981 when I started working here,” said SIU Mobile Port Agent Ed Kelly. “I can honestly say that he was one of the good guys here when I came aboard. Robert and my father sailed together back in the old days and I understand that he was quite a mariner.
“I never heard anything said negative about him as a patrolman,” Kelly continued. “All of the retirees that I have dealt with here at the hall held him in the highest esteem, I’m sure all the retirees and the union as a whole will miss him a great deal.”
Pensioner Hubert Cain recalled the efficient manner in which Jordan went about his everyday business as a Seafarer. “He was an old-timer here,” Cain, a Mobile resident, shared. “He worked with all the SIU’s former presidents and knew them quite well. Robert was a real tough guy in a lot of ways, but you had to be that way back in the old days to deal with the seamen. Not many of them gave him any trouble.”
Cain added, “On the flip side, he was a real fair person, strictly SIU all the way. He’d go down to the ships and take care of everything the members needed. As far as I’m concerned, he was a great man for the SIU and I’ll miss him a great deal.”
Tobe Dansley, another SIU retiree who frequents the Mobile hall, had similar memories of Jordan. “I first met him around 1959 and as I recall, he already was a patrolman. Robert was a man who would go to bat for you, especially if you had a beef. You could always count on him to come down to the ships and fight for you, to get your overtime if you had any coming, as well as take care of any other problems you had.
“All of us around the hall here will miss him,” Dansley concluded. “He was a fine, dedicated SIU man who always looked out for the members.”
Brother Jordan was buried May 25 at Mobile’s Pine Crest Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Mary of Mobile, Ala., and seven children. Brother Jordan had 26 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Printer Friendly Page