Irving King Jordan was born in Glen Ridge, Pennsylvania, in 1943, to an average-income family with three brothers, one sister, and both his parents. He was not born deaf nor grew up deaf, he was involved in his church choir and several sports as a kid. He struggled somewhat in school, taking five years to graduate from high school rather than the typical four. After graduating, he joined the Navy to become a “Administrative Assistant to the ship’s Legal Officer.” However, at the age of twenty-one, I. King Jordan was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident that hospitalized him for fourteen months. Along with other injuries, he became permanently deaf. Becoming deaf changed his life in enormous ways. After being released from the hospital,
