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Today's Featured Biography
James ("Jim") Gordon
BACKGROUND: I was born the fourth child, and the first son, of Robert M. and Sarah R. "Sally" Gordon, on September 5, 1946. If I had not been born a boy, there would have been a lot more sisters in the family until I was.
As my father’s father and everyone after him, had lived in Lincoln since the 1870's, I was raised in Lincoln. I used to say I grew up here, but it became an issue with some people about whether I ever grew up at all, anywhere.
Ours was the only known Jewish family in an otherwise entirely gentile neighborhood surrounding 3501 "D" Street. I lived in that house until I was drafted into the military. My parents moved from it while I was away. I never saw the inside of that house again until it was listed for sale in 1998. My parents did leave their forwarding address for me.
Thanks in large part to my next-door neighbors (the Johnson’s), and others in the neighborhood, I attended more midnight masses at Christmas time than did most others of the Jewish faith. My parish was St. Theresa's; my synagogue Tifereth Israel.
I attended Randolph Elementary School, Millard Lefler Junior High School, and Lincoln High School, from which I graduated in 1964. I enrolled in the University of Nebraska on a full-ride Regents Scholarship in the fall of 1964 and managed to attain scholastic probation inside a year-and-a-half. Given that meteoric career, I quit school at a time when to do so was really, really dumb. The military was drafting people who did not possess a student deferment. It took my local draft board exactly six months to figure out that I no longer had a student deferment and that I was a prime candidate for military service. Until that time, I had not realized he was talking to me when the Uncle Sam poster said "I want YOU!"
My stellar military career consisted of Basic Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana; Armor Training at Fort Knox, Kentucy; the First Air Cavalry Division in South Vietnam; and 17 months and six days in various hospitals until I was put back together.
Got out of the service. Got back to the University of Nebraska. Decided not to be a doctor. Finished undergraduate school. Went instead into law school. Got married, graduated, passed the Bar exam, and joined a law firm, all in 1974. I have two wonderful children, both girls: Micala, now 23 and attending the University of Minnesota to become an elementary school teacher; and Shannon, now 19 and attending the University of Nebraska in Broadcast Journalism and Public Relations (or something like that). My wife, Deb, and I married in 2000, and intend to be together until death do us part.
Practiced law in Lincoln since 1974. First became interested in mediation as an alternative to the litigation of family law cases (the area of experience in which I have been most active). Took Basic Mediation Training (April 1995); Family Mediation Training (August 1995); and Federal Court Mediation Training (August 1995, April 1998, July 1999, and September 2000), in addition to many learning opportunities through TMC. The greatest learning, though, continues to come from actually mediating cases and working with and learning from other mediators.
VOCATION: Attorney-at-law engaged in the general practice of law with an emphasis on family law, litigation, mediation, and individual and small business representation. Partner in the law firm of DeMars, Gordon, Olson, and Zalewski.
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