Const. Jordan remembered as ‘friend for life’
— Const. Ian Jordan spent almost half his life in an unresponsive state after his police cruiser was struck during a routine call on Sept. 22, 1987.
At his funeral Thursday, the Victoria police officer’s family and the police community paid tribute to the first half : The life of a loving husband, a doting father and a dedicated police officer.
Hundreds of officers from the Victoria Police Department and across Canada and the U.S. walked in a procession from the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on Caledonia Avenue to Christ Church Cathedral for the 2 p.m. funeral.
Flags at the church, police station and Victoria City Hall flew at half mast. A flag was draped between two fire trucks on Quadra Street.
Eight police pallbearers carried Jordan’s coffin, also draped with a flag, into the church. His wife, Hilary Jordan, walked into the church with an arm wrapped around her son Mark Jordan, who was 16 months old at the time of the crash that changed his father’s life.
“I aspire to live my life in a way that will touch as many lives as he did,” Mark Jordan, 32, said in his eulogy.
He thanked his mother for her dedication to his father, and the nurses and doctors at Glengarry extended care hospital who cared for his father from 2003 to his death on April 11.
Jordan died at age 66 after suffering complications from a lung infection.
The 1,000-seat church was filled with family, friends, police officers and community members — including some who had never met Jordan, but wanted to pay their respects.
In his eulogy, Victoria Police Chief Del Manak addressed Jordan’s son.
“Mark, your dad loved you deeply. I’m told that every time he talked about you, he had a smile on his face.”
Many officers used the phrase “friend for life” when they talked about Jordan, Manak said.
“We never let Ian forget that he was one of us and that we always had his back.”
Manak recounted a story from Jordan’s early days on the force, when he asked close friend Sgt. Ole Jorgensen, a dog handler, to bring his police dog to a friend’s birthday party. Much to Jorgensen’s embarrassment, his dog Radar urinated on a guest.
Jordan told his friend: “Your dog has good instincts, I never liked that guy anyway,” Manak said, to laughter from the crowd.
The 35-year-old Jordan was supposed to be heading home to his wife and son on Sept. 22, 1987, when a report came in of a possible breakand-enter on Fort Street. Jordan left the old Victoria police headquarters on Fisgard Street.
Heading east on Fisgard, his cruiser was T-boned by a cruiser heading south on Douglas, driven by Jorgensen.
The crash left Jordan with a traumatic brain injury and paraplegic. He never regained consciousness.
The room at Glengarry extended care hospital where Jordan spent the end of his life was far from a place of quiet solitude, said Rev. Gates in his homily.
At times one could hear the crackle of a police scanner, the songs of his music therapist or even bagpipes, a tribute to Jordan’s decade playing the instrument in the Canadian Scottish Regiment Pipe and Drum Band beginning in 1975.
Old friends, like Jorgensen, would come in with updates on the department or their own lives. His mother came every day until her death in 2009. His wife would celebrate birthdays and anniversaries by holding his hand and talking to him.
Jordan was born on March 5, 1952, in Arcola, Saskatchewan to Harry and Marion Jordan. The family settled in Victoria in 1965.
Hilary Jordan met her husband when the two were in Grade 12. She remembers skipping class at Oak Bay High to meet Jordan, who was at Vic High. The two fell in love, were engaged by 19 and married two years later.
Jordan attended the University of Victoria in 1978 as a mature student and finished his degree in political science in just two years. He graduated from UVic’s law school in 1983, a path his son, Mark, would follow decades later. Mark, 31, is now a criminal defence lawyer in Edmonton.
Jordan joined the Victoria Police Department on Oct. 22, 1984.
The Jordan family set up the Const. Ian D. Jordan Bursary fund at UVic’s Faculty of Law.
Donations in Jordan’s name are being accepted by the Canadian Cancer Society Tour de Rock and the Broken Promises Rescue Victoria.