Jordan - Dr. Valdemar Mandell Jordan (1910-1995)

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Jordan - Dr. Valdemar Mandell Jordan (1910-1995)

Valdemar Mandell Jordan, a Dane, was born to Aage Ludvig Frantz "Alf" Jordan, a shipping clerk who had been born in Hong Kong, and his American wife, Claire Roberta Bowie on October 4, 1910 in Yokohama, Japan. He first came to the United States at about the age of 9 months in 1911. Valdemar's grandfather, Aage Ludvig Jordan I (1859-1918) was a telegraph manager for the Great Northern Telegraph Co. He moved to Japan with the Great Eastern Telegraph Company, a Danish firm, in the 1880's to work on the first telegraph cable to connect Japan with China and thus the outside world. He stayed there and sent back for a Danish wife, Carolina. They stayed in Japan and had three sons, each of whom married an American from the East Coast.

Valdemar graduated from Yale University in 1933 and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1937 in the same class as his wife. Val Jordan married Frances Cobb (1911-1986), a graduate of Smith College, daughter of Frank MacMillan and Mildred E. (Ford) Cobb, on August 10, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Valdemar Mandell Jordan was an otolaryngologist and clinical professor at Western Reserve University Medical School in Cleveland. He pioneered research on the surgical anatomy of the middle ear and helped develop a teaching curriculum in this area. In the early 1950's he was medical consultant to the Cleveland Indians. Dr. Jordan served with the Fourth General Hospital in the Southwest Pacific and New Guinea during World War II. His was the first medical unit to be sent to the Pacific following the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor.

Otolaryngology is the branch of medicine that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck disorders. The full name of the specialty is otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. Practitioners are called otolaryngologists, head and neck surgeons, or sometimes otorhinolaryngologists (ORL). A commonly used term for this specialty is ENT (ear, nose and throat).

The Jordans lived in Cleveland, Ohio and summered at their cottage, "Skål Corners", in Manset until they retired to Maine. At the end of his life Dr. Jordan used the house at 164 Shore Road in the summer and spent the winters at his condominium, number 12 in the Western Way complex at the head of Southwest Harbor. He started the tradition there of a lighted Christmas tree at the end of the dock every December.

The Jordan's cottage, originally named "Au Coin de Mer" was built in 1914 by Margarita Safford and her companion Florence Dunton.

Val's boat, a Boston Whaler was called "Skål" ("Cheers!" in Danish).

Frances Cobb Jordan died on October 17, 1986 in Cleveland, Ohio, and was buried in Somesville, Maine in Brookside Cemetery. Valdemar Mandell Jordan died on November 5, 1995 in Manset, Maine.