Barbara Jordan dedicated her life to providing educational opportunities to kids in Augusta’s public schools.
Ms. Jordan, a Freeport resident who died Sunday at age 68, was a co-founder and director of the Augusta 21st Century Community Learning Center, a program of the Augusta Boys & Girls Clubs for Teens and the Augusta School Department.
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The after-school program was designed to provide support to disadvantaged students, said Kathi Wall, a close friend and the executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs for Teens. She said Ms. Jordan was the driving force behind the success of the program.
“We shared a common heart for kids who were disadvantaged and poor, and it drove us to do some pretty creative stuff,” Wall said. “She and I had a motto, ‘Whatever it takes.’ We both took this very seriously.”
Before she worked in that program, Ms. Jordan was principal of Topsham’s Williams-Cone School from 1990 to 2001. She then took a position as director of curriculum and instruction for Augusta public schools.
Sarah Sprogell, her partner for the past 29 years, said Ms. Jordan loved the field of public education. She was a leader in any cause she took on, Sprogell said.
“She was completely dedicated to it,” Sprogell said. “She felt strongly that all kids deserve the best. She really worked hard for all kids in school, especially as a principal. She worked a lot with special-needs kids, to make sure opportunities were given to them to learn.”
Ms. Jordan, known by her friends as “Bobbi,” was remembered Wednesday as a compassionate, spiritual and outgoing woman who brought out the best in people.
One of those people was her partner. Sprogell said she had two sons, ages 6 and 8, when she met Ms. Jordan, who later would help raise them. They enjoyed camping and canoeing trips, and Sprogell said Ms. Jordan supported the boys’ sports and music endeavors.
“She introduced a fullness to their lives,” Sprogell said. “She loved them deeply.”
Ms. Jordan was an active member of the Durham Friends Meeting, where she served on several committees. For the past 15 years or so, she was a member of Women in Harmony, a women’s chorus that performs across the state.
The day before she died, about 30 women from the chorus sang to her at the Gosnell House Hospice Center in Scarborough. Ms. Jordan had lost her ability to speak the day before, but she could hear the women sing.
In 2008, Ms. Jordan went to Kenya to provide a summer camp experience for orphans with AIDS. She went with a group, Friends of Kakamega, and met a young girl named Bilha, whom she sponsored to attend school.
“The trip was a powerful experience for her,” Sprogell said. “She was struck by the deep spirituality and happiness of the Kenyan people.”
Soon after returning home from Kenya, Ms. Jordan was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
In the last months of her life, Ms. Jordan did some work supervising student teachers.
“Bobbi was dying, and she was determined to write their final evaluations — and she did,” her partner said.
“I’ll miss her presence,” she said. “I just know that she is now complete and any brokenness is healed. Bobbi doesn’t have to suffer anymore.”
Staff Writer Melanie Creamer can be contacted at 791-6361 or at:
mcreamer@pressherald.com
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