Memorials › Reavis Haskell “Ray” Jordan
Reavis Haskell “Ray” Jordan
13 Apr 1905 – 16 Sep 2003
| Birth | 13 Apr 1905 |
| Death | 16 Sep 2003 |
| Cemetery | Community Church of Vero Beach Memorial Garden Vero Beach , Indian River County , Florida , USA |
| Added by | Loren Zeller on 20 Jul 2024 |
| FaG | https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/182469429 |
Bio
New York Times: Business Day Ray H. Jordan, Innovator At J.C. Penney, Dies at 98 By BARNABY J. FEDERSEPT. 19, 2003 Ray H. Jordan, who led J. C. Penney's move into catalog sales in 1962 and then became president of the company during a period of rapid expansion and diversification, died Tuesday in Vero Beach, Fla. He was 98. Mr. Jordan was executive vice president of J. C. Penney when he was assigned to look into the catalog business. At the time, Chicago-based retailers like Sears, Roebuck & Company; Montgomery Ward; and Spiegel dominated the field. At Mr. Jordan's suggestion, Penney, which was then based in New York, entered the segment by acquiring General Merchandise, a small but highly automated mail-order company in Milwaukee. Mr. Jordan was appointed president two years later despite having served notice that he wanted to retire the next year. William M. Batten, the company's chief executive, then managed to persuade him to stay through 1968. Mr. Batten came to be recognized as a leading strategist in retailing and Mr. Jordan as the operations expert who supported Mr. Batten's visions. ''He had a total identification with the Penney company,'' said Gordon Lindsey, a Penney executive who helped Mr. Jordan put together his memoirs. Raevis Haskell Jordan (he changed his legal name to Ray as an adult) was born April 13, 1905, in Roseland, MO. He taught school in one-room schoolhouses in Missouri and Oklahoma to support himself as he studied at Southwest Baptist University and the University of Oklahoma, but went to work at Penney before graduating when he ran out of money. His first job was managing a Penney store in Picher, Okla., then a rugged frontier mining town. He spent nights in the store with a shotgun after a series of burglaries and was happy when Penney moved him to nearby Frederick, Okla. His rise through Penney's management ranks was interrupted only by a three-year stint in the Navy during World War II. Most of that service was spent as a lieutenant on fuel tankers in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Before shipping out, in 1943, he married Rosalie Aldridge, who survives him. Other survivors include two daughters, Judith R. Sartori of Uniondale, N.Y., and Rosalinda Jordan of Sebastian, Fla.; three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Mr. Jordan remained on the Penney board until 1975. While the catalog business proved to be a huge success, Mr. Jordan's shared enthusiasm with Mr. Batten for new ventures did not always work out so well. He was a strong supporter of Penney's investment in Treasure Island, a discount chain that experimented with many trends in retailing but lost a considerable amount of money before Penney discontinued it in the 1980's.
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