WAUKEE, Iowa, May  27, 2011 — A whole lot of people were out enjoying the Raccoon River Valley Trail over the Memorial Day weekend.  And in years to come, they’ll enjoy the RRVT experience even more, thanks to the thoughtfulness of the family of Jack Jordison, who lived here in Waukee.  He was a veteran bicyclist and major trail supporter who, though only 51 years old, died in his sleep of a heart incident on April 6.

“Jack was on his bike, using the Raccoon River Valley Trail, every weekend and sometimes late on weekday afternoons, too,” said his widow Barb Jordison.

Jack Jordison

His sister-in-law Debbie Anderson recalled “he’d just done 40 miles on the trail the Saturday before he died,” and added, “Whenever he had any time, he was out on that trail.”

Jack, a highly-regarded advertising and public relations executive, worked for several different ad agencies in the Cedar Rapids and Des Moines areas during his career and, in 1991, started his own company, Jordison Writing Services.  He had friends and business colleagues scattered across the state and nation.

When he died, Barb Jordison directed that memorial donations should go to the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association, and those contributions have totaled more than $5,000 in the almost two months since his passing.

“I didn’t ever know Jack Jordison, but Isure  wish I had,” said Carla Offenburger, of Cooper, who is president of the RRVT Association.  “Of course, there are lots of people we don’t know who use the trail all the time.  And what you see with a generous gift like the Jordison family has provided, is just how important people think the trail is.  And when we receive memorials like this, it allows us to make improvements along the trail, or do some special events and or use the money in other ways that will make the trail even more significant in the lives of people for years to come.”

The RRVT and the RRVT Association have benefitted from other bequests over the years, but this is the first time there’s been a memorial fund directed our way.  The RRVT is owned and operated by the conservation boards in Dallas, Guthrie and Greene Counties, and they handle trail construction and maintenance.  The RRVT Association works closely with the conservation boards, doing all the trail’s marketing, promotion and other enhancements, acting “like a Chamber of Commerce for the whole trail and all the communities along it,” as we often explain.

The conservation agencies have received funds through the years that have helped purchase trailside benches, picnic tables and other amenities.  In the early years of the trail, many people made significant contributions in someone’s memory to help with bridge construction.  In 2009, the family of Kansas City sports videographer Christopher Klinzman, who loved using the trail when he was visiting his family in west central Iowa, donated money after his death for a memorial wildflowers garden that is now growing at the Winkleman Switch trailhead south of Jefferson.  This year, after the death of senior cyclist Alice Andrew, of Jefferson, her family donated some of the stock she owned in McDonalds Restaurants to the RRVT Association.  That stock was converted to more than $15,000, which was then given to the Greene County Conservation Board to use in developing the new trailhead campground that is about to open in Jefferson.

After the Jordison memorial designation was announced, Offenburger said that she and Dallas County Conservation’s director Mike Wallace have been in contact with the City of Waukee, which is spearheading development of a new trailhead park on the northwest corner of that town.  “We think it’d be neat if there is some part of the trailhead development there that we can help along with the Jordison memorial money,” Offenburger said.  “It’d be nice to have some visible reminder about him right there where the trail starts in his own town.”

Contributions can still be made to the Jordison memorial fund by sending checks to the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association, 402 Main Street, Suite 1, Cooper, Ia. 50059.

And Offenburger said she and her RRVT Association board members will be happy to work with other families interested in making memorial contributions for the RRVT.

Jack and Barb Linford Jordison were 1978 classmates and sweethearts at Hoover High School in Des Moines, and Jack went on for a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communications at Iowa State University.

“Jack was a really devoted bike rider, going back to his high school years, and he was a great friend,” said Kent Coffman, of the Des Moines area, who had known Jordison since their years in Delta Tau Delta fraternity at ISU.   “His death was just stunning to all of us — the kind of thing  you just can’t get your head to wrap around — particularly because he was always in such good shape and so active.  He was 5 ft. 9 in. or so, a wiry guy, always biking, real active in coaching his son  Ben in Little League baseball and other sports.”

Coffman said Jordison was very creative in his work, “and he had a great sense of humor,” Coffman said.  “When he was starting up his own ad agency, I told him I had the perfect name for his company, something that would draw a lot of attention — ‘Totally Naked Copywriting.’  You should’ve seen the look on his face when I told him that.  Instead, he went with ‘Jordison Writing Services,’ which was probably a better idea.”

Barb Jordison said her husband started doing RAGBRAI — the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa — in 1976, “and did eight complete RAGBRAIs over the years.”  In the summer of 1980, he and a buddy Neil Hyde rode their bikes across Nebraska twice, once going west into headwinds and then coming back east.  In 1990, Jack and friends Tom Hester and Tim DeVries rode across the United States, on a route from Oregon to Virginia.

Besides his wife and son, Jack is survived by his parents Robert and Rosemary Jordison, of the Des Moines suburb of Clive; his sister Laura Maggio and her husband Matt of Fort Dodge, and their children Sam, Jack and Kate.  He was preceded in death by his grandparents Fred and Laura Jordison and Dwight and Anona Stiles.