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David Davoe Jordan (North Carolina politician)

David D. Jordan (born December 12, 1938) in Dillon, South Carolina is an American politician and businessman who served as a member of the General Assembly of North Carolina House of Representatives, representing the State's 45th House District composed of Buncombe and McDowell Counties during the 1967 Session after the election of November 8, 1966. After moving to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1967, Jordan was elected in November of 1972 to serve in the General Assembly of North Carolina House of Representatives representing Mecklenburg County, North Carolina in the 1973 and 1974 term. Jordan said that then Secretary of State Thad Eure told him that Jordan was the only person in the State's history to move across non-contiguous districts and be elected to serve in the same legislative body.

Early Life

Although born in South Carolina, Jordan's family moved to Charlotte, NC in 1939 where he entered Myers Park Elementary School in 1945. The family moved once again to Gastonia, NC where Jordan graduated from Frank L. Ashley High School in 1957. Among several scholarship offers, Jordan accepted an NROTC scholarship to Duke University. After his first year, Jordan chose to enlist in the United States Army. After basic training at Fort Benning, GA, Jordan was transferred to Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, where he attended the United States Army Finance School. Once that advanced training was completed, Jordan was assigned to administer the test supply section of the Army Finance School at Fort Benjamin Harrison which was located at Indianapolis, Indiana. Fort Benjamin Harrison was closed in 1991 as part of the base realignment process.

In July of 1959 Jordan was transferred to The Republic of Korea to the Eighth US Army Finance and Accounting Office. Upon receiving promotions and proficiency pay increases Jordan became Chief of the Commercial Accounts Division of the Eighth US Army in Korea. The Army, going through a process of a reduction in force, appointed Jordan to this post in a position normally slated for a Major or Lt. Colonel. Jordan replaced a Staff Sergeant that had previous been a Lt. Colonel that had been reduced in rank prior to his retirement.

Jordan was transferred to Fort Bragg, NC in August of 1960. He worked as a staff finance officer in the First Logistical Command. During that assignment, Jordan participated in the LOGEX 61 Exercises on temporary assignment at Fort Lee, Virginia. Jordan was discharged on July 13, 1961, and received a Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Service from Brigadier General Kenneth L. McCrimmon on that date.

Entering The Business World

Jordan joined with his father, Harvie C. Jordan, Sr. as a sales associate. The company, Harvie Jordan & Company, was a regional distributor of business forms, printing, tags and tickets. The territory covered most of eastern North Carolina and all of South Carolina. And after two years, David Jordan and Robert Howie of Waxhaw, North Carolina founded a printing manufacturing company in Waxhaw named Unico Business Forms, Inc. The company acquired standard letterpress equipment and a rotary offset press that could produce printed sheets and pads at an extraordinary inexpensive cost. This enabled the company to be highly competitive and profitable at the same time. Clients included both retail and wholesale customers.

David Jordan, having accumulated sales experience, decided to enter the field of systems and procedures sales and design in order to draw upon the experience that he gained working with computers in the US Army Finance Corp and seek a career in the up-and-coming commercial computer forms and design field. He approached the sales manager of Jordan Systems and Forms, Inc., Jim Moore, a veteran of the industry previously trained by The Standard Register Corporation, for a job to open an office for the company in Asheville, North Carolina. Moore immediately agreed and hired Jordan on the spot.

Jordan moved quickly into the western Carolina market, acquiring big accounts at the expense of the major operators in the computer forms business because with the Jordan Business Forms, Inc. plant, he could offer quicker deliveries and competitive pricing with equal or better quality as the "majors." Jordan joined the local Data Processing Management Association and was appointed as membership chairman largely because of his ability to be around and about as a sales representative and thereby recruit new members. Jordan also committed corporate heresy because he became involved in politics. However, in less than two years living in Buncombe County, Jordan was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, serving the 45th House district consisting of Buncombe and McDowell Counties.

Jordan was promoted to the position of Manufacturing Sales Manager for Jordan Business Forms, Inc.

POLITICAL SUCCESSES

As a freshman representative, Jordan introduced and obtained passage into law State-wide bills dealing with the previous misguided and discriminatory medical and legal treatment of people unfortunately to have acquired epilepsy. It had been wrongly believed that persons with epilepsy had inherited the malady. It had been determined that such was false but discriminatory legislation remained as law. Jordan introduced bill that removed the State's ability to sterilize people with epilepsy against their will; laws that prohibited people with epilepsy from getting married; and the legislation included a provision that if someone with epilepsy could be seizure free for five years, they could obtain a driver license. The only legislation in the package that did not pass was the permission for the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a non-driver identification card. However, during the 1973 session of the General Assembly, Jordan successfully passed legislation for the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles to issue non-driver identification cards to anyone 16 years of age or older that did not or could not drive. This legislation was supported by and signed by Governor James Holshouser, a friend of Jordan.

Further Education

Jordan decided to complete his education and enrolled at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1979. He completed a bachelor's degree in political science with minors in business administration and psychology. While at UNCC Jordan performed research with regard to local taxation and published an article in Public Administration Review which was co-signed by Professor Theodore Arrington in the March/April edition of 1982. (Arrington's first name in the title was misprinted as "Thomas" rather than Theodore)

Jordan enrolled at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and studied Public Policy and Public Administration. He is designated as a KSGP from The Kennedy School.

Return to Business

After the hiatus in education, Jordan returned to business largely as a business consultant, applying his previous business and computer experiences and political expertise in many ways. He and a long-time friend, Robert L. "Bob" Pierce, having first become acquainted in the US Army formed a distribution and printing warehouse company and operated that for many years until Bob's physical ailments forced him to retire. Jordan continued his consulting business until 2010 when he formed a property management business, Gold Star Property Mangement, along with good friend, Daniel Dean. Covid and the death of the major client forced the liquidation of Gold Star in 2021. Jordan has now retired.

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