Dates

• Existence: 1931

Biography

V Jordan Tanner (1931-) is a former naval officer, foreign service officer, legislator, and professor from Utah.

V Jordan Tanner was born on July 27, 1931, to Vasco Myron Tanner and Annie Atkin in Provo, Utah. He was named after David Starr Jordan, an entomologist and prolific philosopher from Stanford who happened to be his father's chief doctrinal advisor and friend. With what his father Vasco learned from David Jordan, Vasco eventually was hired to establish the Department of Zoology and Entomology at Brigham Young University.

Upon graduating high school, V Jordan attended the University of Utah to get his bachelors degree. While there, he was enlisted to serve in the United States Navy as an Ensign. He spent two years as a signal division head aboard the USS Hornet. Once discharged from service, V Jordan transferred to the University of California-Berkley, where he earned his masters in business administration. In Berkeley, he met and married his wife Pat in September 1960, and then reported to Washington D.C. the next month for Foreign Service training. While a Foreign Service officer he served in Korea, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Australia. He decided to return to the United States in 1988. In 1990, V Jordan was elected to the Utah House of Representatives, representing District sixty-three in east Provo. He served as a representative for ten years. He also volunteered as an adjunct professional at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at Brigham Young University.

Citation:

Ancestry.com, June 7, 2017 (b. July 27, 1931 to Vasco Myron Tanner and Annie Atkin)

UPB Files, June 7, 2017 (Born in the Crane Maternity Home in Provo, UT; named after Stanford entomologist and philosopher David Starr Jordan; Vasco Myron Tanner was the founder of BYU's Zoology and Entomology department)

Deseret News, Aug. 9, 2017 (V Jordan attended University of Utah; served as Ensign in the Navy as an operations signal division head; recieved a mnaster's degree at UC Berkley; Trained to be a Foreign Service Officer in Seoul, worked in Jakarta (where he encountered and was held hostage by Anti-American Student Protestors), Pakistan during President Bhutto's coup, Apartheid-era South Africa, Korea, and Austrailia; Elected to Utah Legislature, serving 5 terms starting in 1990; served as adjunct professor at Kennedy Center, giving workshops for students interested in the State Department)

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