LITTLE ROCK — When Jordan Johnson was a junior at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, he read a newspaper article about a meat recall and knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life.
He picked up the public phone at the Kappa Sigma house and called Skip Rutherford, who was the spokesman for the meat producer.
“I had never met him,” Johnson says. “I called him and I said, ‘I want to do what you do and can you show me how?’”
That phone call - which Johnson describes as “brash” - was the beginning of a 14-year friendship between the mentor and protege.
Johnson, 33, has never let his relatively young age stop him. At age 23, Johnson showed up in the November 2000 edition of Esquire modeling a $3,500 wool suit, a $135 tie and a $340 cotton shirt. The article and photo spread were about the Democratic Party Convention. Johnson was described this way:
“And there’s Jordan Johnson out of Little Rock, 23 years old and already a total operator. Somewhere, he’s just graduated and has taken a job raising money to build a presidential library down in Arkansas. ‘I’m not doing this because he’s been a great president, even though that’s what I believe,’ he says. ‘It’s that he’s been president of the United States, and whether we realize it or not, this is history, and it’s crucially important.’ He then says this: ‘Man, I was at a party last night, and I talked to Elisabeth Shue for a long time. She wants to give us some money, and we figured that’d be a pretty good idea.’”
Today, that article hangs on his wall at Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods - an advertising agency in Little Rock. His official title is vice president and director of public policy. But he also is spokesman for the William J. Clinton Foundation, and has worked to raise millions of dollars to complete the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge.
BUILDING BRIDGES
Rutherford remembers the phone call from the college student. Rutherford said it wasn’t unusual for him to receive phone calls from other public relations specialists who were seeking a job. But Johnson’s call was different.
“I was impressed,” says Rutherford, now dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. “Here is this college student from Bryant, Ark., who wanted to know about crisis management.”
Johnson ended up taking a course Rutherford taught at UA. And during his 1998 spring break, Johnson became the first intern at the Clinton Foundation.
“I truly believe if it weren’t for Jordan, we would still be working on it,” Rutherford says of the bridge. “He wanted it from the moment the [Clinton Presidential Center] was built. ... He was the driver of this bridge project. The person who stayed with it hour after hour, meeting after meeting, setback after setback was Jordan Johnson.”
The bridge over the Arkansas River will be dedicated at 11 a.m. Friday and will officially open to the public Oct. 2. Former President Bill Clinton will attend the dedication and take his first walk across the renovated bridge.
The pedestrian bridge was originally the Rock Island Bridge - a railroad crossing. It was supposed to be part of the center’s master plan but was cut because of higherthan-expected costs. Trail enthusiasts pressured the city to follow through with turning the abandoned railroad track into a pedestrian and bicycle path.
The $10.5 million price tag eventually was covered by a combination of public and private funds including $2.5 million in federal stimulus dollars, $1 million from Little Rock, $750,000 from North Little Rock and $2 million by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The rest came from the Clinton Foundation and private donations.
“He is always thinking and thoughtful,” says Stacy Sells, senior vice president at CJRW and Johnson’s friend. “He is a real problem solver. It is hard for me to remember a time when he threw up his hands and said we couldn’t do something.”
Stephanie S. Streett, executive director of the Clinton Foundation, says she first met Johnson while she was working with the Clinton administration in Washington. At that time, Johnson was working with Rutherford on the formation of the Clinton Foundation. She calls Johnson a “make-it-happen person.”
“Jordan is one of those people who makes things happen. I rely on him for so many things. ... But he puts family first. He has the right balance of work and family and he does it so gracefully.”
The bridge is the fourth pedestrian bridge on the Arkansas River. The Big Dam Bridge opened in 2006, the Junction Bridge opened in 2008 and the Two Rivers Park Bridge opened in July.
Johnson says that being the fourth bridge does not make it any less significant. He points out that the bridge brings to fruition the major theme of Clinton’s presidency - building a bridge to the 21st century.
“Tonight, let us resolve to build that bridge to the 21st century, to meet our challenges, protect our basic values and prepare our people for the future,” Clinton said in his acceptance speech at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
And Johnson - a running enthusiast - says the Clinton bridge is the “bookend” of the Arkansas River Trail system with ramps that offer easy access for pedestrians and bicyclists.
“I travel all around the country. I look at trail systems. This trail system, for a city our size in the South region of the country, is an amenity that others can’t compete with,” Johnson says.
CLINTON PHOTO OP
Johnson first met Clinton when he was about 6 years old. At that time, he begged his parents to take him on an airplane. They did - booking a round-trip flight to Dallas. Johnson chose his own outfit that day, including a Star Wars belt, which he thought would be the perfect flight accessory.
The airplane trip was just that. The Johnsons flew to Dallas and immediately boarded a return trip to Little Rock. That return trip happened to be Southwest Airlines’ first in-bound flight into Little Rock.
When they got off the plane, they were greeted with blaring music and balloons. Then-Gov. Clinton was there for the festivities.
“He reached down and picked me up and held me throughout the event standing next to the president of Southwest Airlines,” Johnsonsays, adding he has a black and white photo of him and Clinton from that day.
“Jordan always had a sense of presence,” his mother, Janet Johnson, says.
Clinton already knew Johnson’s parents. Janet Johnson is a political activist, a public school teacher and a former state representative. His father, Jamey Johnson, is a division manager at the state Plant Board of the Agriculture Department. His brother, Jarrod, is a lobbyist. Partial to “J” names, the Johnsons named Jordan after the River Jordan. Jarrod was named after a character on The Big Valley.
The Johnson house is known for its open door. Janet Johnson frequently helps candidates with races at the family home. His mother also has an open-door policy in her political science classroom, extending an open invitation to political candidates to drop by and talk to her students. Many do.
“She thought the best way to educate kids was bring the world into the classroom, not the classroom looking out,” Jordan Johnson says. “It was always the world looking into her classroom.”
Johnson learned many of his life lessons from his mother - faith and family first; community comes before self.
“She said based upon the skill sets God has given you, you have an obligation to get out there and try to help others who can’t help themselves,” Johnson says.
The Johnsons made family vacations a learning experience. Each year, the family took two-week summer vacations to different places to learn about the people, the history and the community.
“When I went back to school, someone would ask what did you do during your summer vacation,” Johnson recalls. “I’d say I went to a cemetery.”
Janet Johnson says her son is one of those people who has “never met a stranger.”She recalls a time when Johnson was about 2 years old and she took him to the downtown McDonald’s. After she ordered, she turned around and saw Johnson shaking hands and introducing himself to four men.
“He has never been shy,” she says.
LONG JUMPER
In junior high school, Johnson’s coach lined up all of the boys and assessed their track and field abilities. When they were asked to jump, Johnson jumped a long way. The coach asked him to do it again and again. That was the start of his long-jump career.
He ended up breaking a state record - almost. His jump was long enough to beat the record then held by Basil Shabazz of 24 feet and 31/2 inches. But Johnson’s toe crossed the line and it didn’t count.
“I am a multi-tasker and I am easily distracted,” Johnson says. “School came easily for me, so sports actually forced me to focus. It taught me the value of teamwork and to focus, to set a goal and work toward it. Sometimes you get there and sometimes you don’t, but once you get there, you have to set another goal.”
He was offered a partial athletic scholarship at UA but decided he would rather concentrate on academic life rather than jumping. A good student, Johnson was awarded an academic scholarship.
After two years of working at CJRW, Johnson decided to go to law school at night. He attended the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, graduating in 2007. But he never intended to practice law - he never even took the Arkansas bar exam.
“I was curious about it - the education. It was the single best education you can get. It teaches you how to think differently, look at things from a completely different perspective and value other people’s arguments andopinions,” he says.
Johnson doesn’t work on his long jump anymore. Instead, his free time is devoted to his family and his church. He and his wife, Angie, were confirmation mentors to Sells’ daughter, Anna-Lee, at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church. The Johnsons have two boys - Patterson, 4, and Keeton, 1.
Sells, who has been battling breast cancer, says that one day when she was not feeling well, her dogs started barking at something outside. She looked out the window and saw Johnson weeding her garden.
“He is a young man way ahead of his time. I rely on him consistently,” Sells says. “He is somebody I run things by in work and in life.”
When asked what she thinks the future will hold for Johnson, Sells says, “I hope I am working for him.”SELF PORTRAIT Jordan Johnson
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH Dec. 18, 1977, Little Rock
IN HIGH SCHOOL, MY PEERS THOUGHT I WAS Driven and compassionate
I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT Israel
MY FANTASY DINNER PARTY WOULD INCLUDE Martin Luther King, grandfather Buck Keeton, grandfather Pete Johnson, Jackie Robinson, John Wesley, Susan B. Anthony and Alexander Hamilton
ON MY IPOD YOU WILL FIND Sinatra, Jay-Z, Zac Brown Band, Led Zeppelin, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett
I AM CURRENTLY READING Various Audubon field guides and Dr. Seuss books with my two young sons, Patterson andKeeton
I AM SCARED OF Relaxing
I PROPOSED TO MY WIFE In the White River (wearing waders) while fishing for trout
THE ONE THING NO ONE KNOWS I AM GOOD AT IS Container gardening
MY WORST HABITS ARE I chew on straws and toss baseballs in meetings
THE ONE PERSON I WOULD LOVE TO MEET IS My maternal grandfather, Buck Keeton. He died before I was born.
THE NAME OF MY FIRST PET WAS Bridgett, a Dalmatian
ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP Driven
High Profile, Pages 37 on 09/25/2011