Sacramento
County
Biographies
FRANK
MORRILL JORDAN
Frank
Morrill Jordan, California’s Secretary of State, was born August 6, 1888 at
Alameda, California.
A veteran of the American
Expeditionary Forces in World War I, Jordan first joined the staff of the
Secretary of State’s office over a quarter of a century ago.
The son of the late Frank C. Jordan,
Secretary of State for nearly three decades, the younger Jordan attended grade
and high school at Oakland.
Moving to Auburn with his family in
1906, young Jordan also attended high school there. He later worked with a
survey gang relocating the Southern Pacific between Colfax and Rocklin. Later
he went to Shasta County and to Arizona to engage in mining work.
From 1911 to 1917 he was with the
engineering department of the Automobile Club of Southern California.
When the United States entered the first World War, Jordan joined the 144th Field
Artillery at San Francisco, the only volunteer outfit in the United States.
Entering as a buck private, he was mustered out as a lieutenant—advancing
without officers’ training.
Marrying Alice Crossan,
a Red Cross nurse whom he met overseas, Jordan later engaged in operating his
own general insurance business in the states of California, Oregon and
Washington. He later again joined the staff of his father as a deputy Secretary
of State.
Jordan has one daughter, Mary Jane
Law, who resides at San Mateo with her husband, Robert Law and daughters,
Nancy-Jo and Peggy-Ann.
Like his father before him, Jordan
continues the “open door” policy of his office. Both doors to his private
office remain open to the public during office hours.
Jordan, a Protestant, is a member of
the Masonic Order, Shrine, Elks, Native Sons of the Golden West, Pasadena
Athletic Club, Jonathan Club, Commonwealth Club, San Francisco Press and Union
League Club, Sacramento Trade Club, Balboa Bay Club, Grandfathers Club,
American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, 144th Field Artillery
Association, Loyal Order of Moose and the Masquers.
He is past president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Eminent Californians 1953”,
by Lee E. Johnson & C. W. Taylor. Page 227, C. W. Taylor
Publ., Palo Alto, California, 1953.
© 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.