In Memoriam of Stan Jordan
By: Bryce Steiner
It was in 2005, just a few weeks after the West Bend News opened, that I met for the first time Stan Jordan. He had retired from the US Postal Service a couple decades earlier and now was mowing the cemetery for the village of Antwerp. He was a friend of Steve and Sue Knapp, co-founders of the West Bend News, and they brought Stan in to meet me because they thought he might be a good person to write in the paper.
I don’t want to say that Stan was an immediate hit, because he wasn’t with me. My thoughts were that he was an old nice guy, and I was busy trying to figure out how to start a new company. He was just turning 81 when we opened in June. However, It didn’t take long for Stan and his wife, Pauline, to grow on me.
As far as I know he never learned to type and so Sue would take his hand written notes and turn them into something printable. That process was carried over by the current office manager, Crystal Rider, after Sue and Steve retired.
No one would know more than the guys who kept Stan entertained for morning coffee at the Country Times Market (now G-Mart) of his exploits and his ideas for his next story! Rollie Clem gave him a mug that he used for several years “Old Guys Rule”. Oley McMichael would, unfortunately, give Stan another joke that, more than likely, I couldn’t reprint. And while they were there they would solve most of the world’s problems, while creating about twice as many resolved.
Over the past few months people have been stopping in to check on Stan as the articles hadn’t been ran regularly. Crystal or I would tell them he was working on trying to get better. He really did want to come back in. Even at Christmas time he called me from his new iPhone that we had him get so we could communicate if he was at home. Imagine a 96-year old who figured out how to FaceTime! He dreaded the idea of going into a care facility because he knew that with the governor’s orders people wouldn’t be able to see him.
Between September and December we talked many times. He wanted to make sure that his truck was taken care of—he thought it might need a couple quarts of oil.
Stan could remember more than most of us ever would. Stan was born in June of 1924, and he grew up in one of the most difficult times of American History – The Great Depression. He would remind us regularly how they had absolutely nothing saying, “We were as poor as church mice”. They would go down to the river to catch fish for their dinner.
Stan would tell us stories of his youth – so many that it would fill multiple books. I wish we would have recorded every day he was there! He would be sitting in his 1970’s, 4-wheeled, ugly blue/green chair, intensely focused at writing another part of history for people to read, and all of a sudden he would break out in a song or poem! Stan could recite poetry that he learned 85 years ago – no kidding! He might mess up a couple words, but he would end up getting it perfect. At first I thought he was making it up, because some were just incredible, some not politically correct for today. I would go and search the text on the internet and would find they were actually old songs or poems! He could even recite lines from plays that he was in. He was looking forward to playing his own part in the Reservoir War play that Jane Nice wrote and to be used for the Paulding County Bicentennial reservoir marker celebration. Unfortunately, COVID turned most of 2020’s plans upside down.
Thinking of the Paulding County Bicentennial, Stan utterly refused to go to the celebration that took place in February. He didn’t want to be a bother as his last few years had been a struggle with a cane or walker. We ended up convincing him to go and he was personally honored by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine with a standing ovation as Paulding County’s oldest living World War II Veteran.
If you kept up on Stan’s writings in the West Bend News, you would know that Stan answered the call of duty when he was 18 in 1942. His Antwerp High School football team had come off of an undefeated and unscored upon season in 1938 (team picture now in the Antwerp School) but now the world had changed drastically. He had to leave his sweetheart who he started going out with in the 7th grade, Pauline Powell, and he headed to the European front. He and his brothers, Jack and Jim, all went over to fight the tyranny taking place globally. Stan was a tank gunner in the Army. They got to Europe and found the American tanks were very much under-built compared to the German Panzer. He said they had 12” of solid steel on the front. The American tank ammunition would just bounce off. All of the American tanks that survived had to have modifications made to go back out against the Germans!
Stan was very fond of World War II. He could tell stories of how bad the food was in the mess halls, but then come back and say how much he loved the spam!
After the war, Stan came back and was hired on for the Postal Service and started sorting mail on the steam engines that ran through from St. Louis and New York. He would go one day and be back the next. After getting married to Pauline, he needed to stay back and there was an opening for a local mail carrier. Stan took the Antwerp Route and learned where everyone lived and also had a four mile area in Indiana that was part of the Antwerp delivery.
An adventurer lived in Stan – everyday his writings were the places of mountains or fighting battles on the frontier. Flying high over Germany with the Red Baron or maybe a road trip with his son, Gale, when he was a senior in high school!
Stan retired as a rural letter carrier and had a place in Florida that he and Pauline would go to. They loved Florida! He told all kinds of fishing stories with his sister, Gracie, and brother-in-law, Ray. He and his buddies would go out early and come back when the sun got hot. It was the life! I would love to tell his friends down there, but I assume that he probably out lived them.
Nature was something Stan adored. He had been a member of the Antwerp Conservation Club and thought it was a great club. He would write about eagles, bob cats, beavers, and everything else. Chad McKeever would be in regularly to show Stan old maps, pictures, animals and much more and Stan ate up every bit of it. Stan told Pastor Rick to be sure and let him know about his latest catfish catches so he could get it in the paper. Stan believed fully in the West Bend News motto – Good News for Good Communities. He made that happen!
When Stan arrived at 9 am he was ready to write, which usually involved stories or politics he heard at the restaurant. People would generally start coming in around then and want Stan to look at an old black and white picture and see if he could identify the location. He would look at it for a little bit and start talking about how the location changed with the owners, or how it burnt down and was rebuilt into something new. An hour later he would let people know he was done by saying, “See ya”, or “you come back now.” He would leave around 11 for lunch at the Oasis and come back around 1 to start researching the questions people would have. Around 3 pm he would take off for the day to head home for a quick snooze before going to supper. In the evening it was all “Wheel” and Jeopardy, and then get in a baseball game. He was very sad several weeks ago when I told him that Alex Trebek died.
Stan had two “jobs” at the shop – Lord knows you better not do them when he wasn’t there! He would run the shredder. He loved running the shredder. I think he only burned up two of them and was on this third! His other job was to report the gas prices at the Pop N Brew on the other side of the street! “That was the old High Speed gas station” and he would put out a notice in the paper for anyone who had pictures of something he was working on. That gas station location was one of the places of which he always wanted old pictures. People responded to Stan all the time! They would bring something in, and he would tell them if that was the location for which he had been looking. Other times he would argue and say, “NOPE! That’s not around here!”
If you read any of his later posts you would have read about his 1996 Dodge Truck with the American Eagle covering the back window. He had Jarrison Steiner put that on because he loved Eagles! He was so proud of that, and everyone knew it! He would compare it to “Old Blue” – an old grain truck that was owned by the farmer across the road from him – Kenny Hahn.
Stan was always the gentleman. He made sure he looked trim and nice no matter what! Every three weeks he had his hair appointment scheduled with his granddaughter, Jessi. He would let me know when I needed to shave. Now you know why I look the way I do! I haven’t had Stan reminding me lately! Stan’s son Gale had three kids Mark, Jessi, and Eric, and Stan loved his grandkids very much and would mention them all the time! He made sure they were all taken care of. Stan was always generous!
Whenever we would go somewhere, and Stan loved to go anywhere, we most likely took his truck or my van. He couldn’t get in and out of cars. A year and a half ago I called Stan up on Labor Day and asked if he wanted to go the festival at Oakwood. Boy, was he excited! We got there just when the parade was starting and had people volunteering to let him sit in their golf cart so he could get closer. He loved it! I pulled out the drone to record the video so we could post it, and he would tell people all about the “boss’s little aeroplane”. He got the royal treatment at Oakwood that day – and every day he went out!
One thing that Stan loved more than anything was food! Angel Steiner or Crystal would make baked goods, banana cream pie, eggs and bacon or anything else! Stan was not afraid of food! One person that Stan always mentioned on food was Lorsi and her pies. He could never get enough! Speaking of food, he liked going to Uncle Fudd’s in Melrose too! They would have their music and he and Steve would go there before it burned down several years ago.
When Donald Trump was elected in 2016 Stan was very upset and his writings showed that. I would get phone calls telling me not to print Stan’s opinions on Donald Trump. When the politics became dangerous, Stan was not afraid to weigh in the current topic whether it was drug use, George Floyd, or anything else. Of course, I might have had to spend days on the phone or email explaining free speech, but so be it. Oley McMichael would come in and get Stan riled up about Trump, and it would get Stan’s heart rate up! We figured this was a good way for Stan to get exercise! One thing that this taught me was that no matter your political opinions are – you can always communicate even when you disagree! Most of the time if Stan disagreed with you it was relatively easy to change his mind if you brought in a piece of warm apple pie with whip cream!
Stan started writing his first book, “Billy Metzger Journal” in 2010 and it was published in 2014. It takes his adventurous mind through the west after the Civil War. It was a great project. Stan would have several weeks of articles written ahead of time or planned. He would start to complain that he had nothing to write about and get depressed, but soon we talked about something and he would say, “Yeah, I might be able to get something out of that.”
He loved going places, as stated before. This past summer Antwerp Police Chief George Clemens took Stan on a field trip around town. Stan described the history of places all over and they even went to one of the canal viaducts that are still in this county. Both George and Stan and a fantastic time!
I had an opportunity that most people never had, and that was to spend nearly every day for 15+ years with Stanley Woods Jordan. God Bless you!
It was all of his consistent readers that really inspired Stan to come in everyday. Thank you to all of you! So much more could be written but I want to close with this: Stan loved life and life loved Stan!
See Ya soon Stan!
Love, Bryce
