Remembering Brad Jordan, Glen Rock 9/11 Memorial's Guiding Hand

GLEN ROCK, NJ — Amid a global pandemic, Glen Rock will remember the 11 residents who lost their lives in the terroristic attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

But the town will honor a 12th person this year in Brad Jordan, who was instrumental in creating the borough's 9/11 memorial.

In late January, Jordan, a founding member of the Glen Rock Assistance Council and Endowment (GRACE), who hosts the annual ceremony, died unexpectedly.

Without Jordan, current Chairman Jon Cole wrote in a touching Facebook post, GRACE, wouldn't exist.

Founded in the days after the attacks, it was Jordan who began organizing.

Glen Rock is a small town.

So when borough residents gathered at the train station where many took a daily ride into Manhattan, they were checking to see whose car was still parked in the lot, and who made it home, Cole told Patch Thursday.

The memory sticks with him, as does the simple edict Jordan presented him with the following day.

"It was Brad who made the calls on 9/12/2001 pulling a group together because he couldn't see or think of others in pain and not do something," Cole wrote in what he calls a stream-of-conscious Facebook message in the hours after he learned of Jordan's passing.

"There was no playbook, we didn't know what to do," said Cole of the group, who eventually went on to offer support to the families of victims, as well as spearhead the building of the 9/11 memorial.

It was Jordan who wrote the group's charter, and it was Jordan, Cole said, "who selflessly gave heart to the organization that still exists."

His guiding hand came to define GRACE's mission, achievements and persisting presence in the borough today.

Jordan not only helped spearhead the building of the 9/11 memorial in Glen Rock, but actually chose the piece of steel that serves as the centerpiece.

Though he is no longer here to see it, the group he helped found will keep his legacy alive.

This year, standing where Jordan used to, Cole will be the one to tell you about it. In his speech Friday, Cole said he will talk about two things: the coronavirus pandemic, and Brad Jordan.

"Brad was a really brilliant guy who lived by his heart," said Cole. "In everything he did, the common thread was always to be of service to everyone else. It was what attracted people to him."

Through that February Facebook post, Cole painted an eloquent picture of a man who often gave more than he took, especially when that giving mattered most to the people who needed it.

In fact, Cole relayed that he may even just read the post in its entirety on Friday.

"Brad’s contribution was important enough that I don’t care if they’ve heard it before, they’re going to hear it again," he said.