This site designed by me.
What can I say? I love ironwork. Everything about it. It's an appreciation that my father passed down to me in the few short years that we had together. I would be remiss in my duties if I did not make mention of my father Frederic Jordan. Not only was he my father, he was my best friend, mentor, and least I say, hero. Upon my being discharged from the Marine Corps in 1985 and having absolutely no experience in the welding/fabrication field, my father took a chance and hired me to work in his shop. I looked at it as an opportunity to really get to know him as my parents divorced when I was 12 and our time together then was limited. I was not the model employee that I thought I was, you know, the one that every employer looks for, and was subsequentially fired three months later. By my own father mind you! "You are not an asset, you are a liability" he bellowed. Boy was he right. In retrospect, I would have fired myself much sooner! Although he allowed me to do side work at night, it still took a couple of years of growing up (and groveling) to be allowed back into the shop on a full time basis.
We spent the next two years working together, side by side in his shop. We made everything from truck racks, bumpers and hitches, to just about anything that came through the door. We bled together, sweated together, laughed together and cried together. We also made railings. Basic stuff though. He was self taught and I was the beginner. Our methods were crude, sometimes inaccurate I might say, but our customers were always left happy and satisfied. We didn't know about NOMMA back then, but somehow believed in the same core values that NOMMA holds dear, such as networking. My dad would be the first to share information with anyone, especially other fabricators, and I always thought that to be admirable. Honorable even. Our industry needs more people like dad, and all one has to do is look at NOMMA's membership directory, and they are all right there.
He passed away suddenly in 1992. He never got the chance to meet his grandson, my son, who was born on his birthday. He never saw my first driveway gate or radiused interior rail. I like to believe that the work I've done since his passing would put a smile on his face, but I know he would caringly ask, (as he always did with any of my projects) "How'd you do it?" and "How long did it take?"
Dad