Beloved Professor Returns to Campus

By Ashley Bowles
Rotunda Reporter"I thought it would be like going to the dentist.you'll go to the office, and they'll say 'Come on in,' and you'll get a shot of Novocaine and it'll make you numb, and then they'll do it and it won't hurt, and then you'll go home and you won't be able to chew on that side for a while and then it'll be OK," said Dr. James Jordan.

After 128 e-mails and 60 "snail mail" letters of "Get well soon, can't wait for you to get back" and "Hope you don't die" from students, colleagues and others, Dr. James Jordan, professor of anthropology and Longwood's resident ghost story teller, has returned to his Longwood University home after surgery for prostate cancer. Jordan was diagnosed in late summer 2009 and made a formal announcement to Longwood right before fall break. He delayed the surgery until the end of the fall semester to avoid missing his classes. He also had to cancel his and Dr. Brian Bates' - department chair of sociology, anthropology and criminal justice studies - annual study abroad trip to England because Jordan's doctor and Bates advised against it since the trip would be just three weeks after the surgery.

On a sunny winter afternoon, Jordan sits down in his skull-filled office and recounts his diagnosis and ongoing recovery. "I lived, I lived through it. There was some doubt the last time you and I spoke but I lived through the darn thing. I didn't think I was going to. I was really pretty scared but it all happened. In fact it was seven weeks ago at this very moment that I was lying someplace on a gurney, split open like a stuck pig," recalled Jordan. Jordan demonstrated that at 49 days out of surgery he was indeed "ambulatory and taking fluids" by walking to get his mug of green tea. "I'm not back 100 percent yet, don't have all my sails hoisted on the mast and I'm a little bit slow but everything is fine."

With the cancelation of the intersession trip to England, Jordan spent the holiday season a little differently this year. "My family came here and spent Christmas with me. I laid about a great deal of the time...my daughters kept coming home all the time.ya know, cooking and taking care of me and things like that. in my freezer I have more food than I've ever had in my life. If it snowed on Farmville today and the snow was six feet over the tops of the houses, I would be able to eat out of my freezer from now until Easter; I have that much food, I probably possess the largest collection of Tupperware in Prince Edward County."

"It's made me a lot happier in my life. Someone once told me 'Don't sweat the little things Jordan and everything is a little thing' and I've always heard that cliché but I never really believed it.now I believe it, there aren't too many things that you need to get overly upset about." Jordan reflected on how this ordeal has changed him. "In the next couple of weeks I'll be able to do pretty much all the things I was able to before... I still don't walk very far. we're going to England next year, that's for darn sure."

Multiple e-mails were sent out to students and alumni in the Anthropology program, along with faculty across campus stating that Jordan's surgery went well, along with other updates on his condition. The e-mails were sent out before winter break by Bates. "I've known Dr. Jordan since I was a high school student. I came here a few years later and he was my adviser. I'm very close to him and it was scary," said Bates, recounting when he was told Jordan had cancer. Bates explained how the department became an even closer group and rallied around to support Jordan. "It would have been odd to go without him," Bates said, regarding the cancelation of the trip to England. "I feel that Dr. Jordan is one of those professors that every student at Longwood should take," Bates said.

On his initial reaction upon hearing the news of Jordan's cancer. anthropology and history major Bryan Roethel said, "I was actually really surprised; I work with Dr. Jordan at Holliday State Park, and I didn't actually know until after they found out here," he said. "I wasn't really surprised, mainly because Dr. Bates was giving us updates on what was going on. I was really relived though when I heard the surgery went well, mainly because I personally know him and as a teacher I really enjoy his classes." Roethel said he was more surprised that Jordan was coming back the semester after the surgery.

"I'm still moving slow but I'm teaching a full load. I have four courses and one independent study and I'm doing everything I'm supposed to, just a little bit slower then I would otherwise. Just walking down High Street knowing that there isn't any cancer in you. it made me really happy to be back at my desk, to be seeing my students, and showing my slides," smiled Jordan. "I'm gonna keep on keeping on.