“My two grandmothers were the best cooks, and they did it with no recipes and no measuring equipment. It was done with a little dab of this and a dash of that. I remember watching them,” was William Jordan’s response to how he became interested in cooking.

He added that he would cook sometimes for the family since his mother and father were on the same time schedule for work. “My mother believed everyone should learn to cook. But she didn’t.”

William’s parents moved from Portsmouth to Gloucester when he was in the fifth grade. But with only one and a half years remaining before graduation, the family moved to Mathews. “I wasn’t very happy about it.” However, William adjusted and made many friends in his new school. Following graduation, he became a Navy recruit serving in the submarine service. “We were stationed in South Carolina but sailed out of Holy Loch, Scotland.”

After six years of service, William decided to return to Virginia and went with the Chesapeake Corporation ...