Museum leader aims for county job

Gil Jordan was weary of big-city life in Los Angeles when he headed to Montana in the late 1970s with a rather singular goal.

“I wanted to go somewhere that wouldn’t be developed in my lifetime,” he recalled. “I’d about had it with the rat race in California and literally decided if I stayed there I’d have gotten stuck there.”

He found his real-life Shangri-la in the woods near Coram, where he set to work building a log home on his 40-acre plot. It was there at the end of the road, not far from the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Flathead National Forest, where Jordan found true neighbors, “genuine people” who convinced him early on he’d found the right place.

Jordan, a Democrat, is running against Commissioner Cal Scott to represent District 1 following the death of Commissioner Jim Dupont earlier this year.

Jordan was raised in Arcadia, Calif., the son of a Methodist minister. His childhood was “what any well-supported and loved kid” would experience. He had a band of friends through the Methodist Youth Fellowship and was a cheerleader during his senior year of high school, “in the days when male cheerleaders were common.”

Theater performance took center stage in Jordan’s life early on. At age 7 he acted in a Christmas play at church and that hooked him. He went on to perform in 60 theater productions. He directed a dozen productions, and before moving to Montana in 1985 he served seven years as the technical director for the very busy 1,300-seat La Mirada Civic Theatre, where he was responsible for all aspects of producing close to 300 events each year.

Jordan came to Montana without a job when he moved to the Flathead full time in 1985, but had a financial cushion from selling his home in California.

What he discovered was that the skills he’d assembled from years of theater work — from managing sizable budgets to constructing sets — would serve him well as he went to work here.

When he started eight years ago as executive director at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell, the nonprofit had 400 members and a substantial amount of debt. Today the museum has no debt and 800 members.

Jobs Jordan held throughout his professional career have given him a variety of skills and insight. He spent 13 years as a social worker with Western Montana Mental Health Center, working with adults with serious mental illness at Lamplighter House. Working with those clients gave him an advanced understanding of human behavior.

Jordan left Lamplighter house after a disagreement with the director about the food program and how managed care — he was a vocal opponent of the managed care system imposed on the mental health system at that time — was short-changing care for mentally ill clients.

Over the past year Jordan has participated in the local Occupy movement against social and economic inequality, but never as an organizer, as some of his opponents have implied.

He joined in most of the weekly rallies, and when attendance waned after awhile he said he sent out email notices from a list of addresses other rally attendees had collected. He also sent out a press release for the local Occupy movement’s first anniversary.

“I own the fact I’ve been out there every week,” he said, adding that he hasn’t participated much over the past three to four months. “My sign says, ‘I care about you.’”

Jordan makes a point of saying he’s not a politician.

When Dupont died unexpectedly in March, Jordan had “a 72-hour window to make a decision” about running on the Democratic ticket for the remaining two years of Dupont’s term.

When he committed to running, he said he committed to go “full bore.”

And Jordan knows something about stamina. At 66 he’s still running marathons, having completed the Boston Marathon last year and logging more than 25,000 marathon miles over a lifetime.

“When people get to know me, they understand I am not about politics,” he said. “I am about service. I’m a proven hard worker who gets things done.

“My role as a commissioner would be to ask the question, ‘How did you come to that decision?’” he said. “I may still get outvoted, but I would lay the groundwork” for Democratic representation.

“If all three commissioners represent the same political party, it seems a certainty that large segments of valley residents will not have a voice,” Jordan said. “I offer a moderate and moderating point of view that will bring some balance to the county commission.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.