Jordan-Bychkov, Terry G. 1938-2003

(Terry Gilbert Jordan-Bychkov, Terry G. Jordan)

PERSONAL: Born August 9, 1938, in Dallas, TX; died from pancreatic cancer, 2003; son of Gilbert John (a college professor) and Vera Belle Jordan; married Marlis Anderson, August 18, 1962 (marriage ended); married Bella Bychkova; children: (first marriage) Tina, Sonya, Eric. Education: Southern Methodist University, B.A., 1960; University of Texas, M.A., 1961; University of Wisconsin, Ph.D., 1965. Hobbies and other interests: Travel, genealogy.

CAREER: Arizona State University, Tempe, assistant professor of geography, 1965-69; North Texas State University, Denton, professor of geography and chairman of department, 1969-82; University of Texas—Austin, Walter Prescott Webb Professor of Geography, 1982—.

MEMBER: Association of American Geographers (vice president, 1986-87; president, 1987-88), American Geographical Society (fellow), Pioneer America Society, Texas State Historical Association, Texas Folklore Society, Texas Institute of Letters, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Woodrow Wilson fellow; Tullis Award, Texas State Historical Association, 1979; Honors Award, Association of American Geographers, 1982.

WRITINGS:

(Under name Terry G. Jordan) German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-Century Texas, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1966.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan) Population Origin Groups in Rural Texas, Association of American Geographers (Washington, DC), 1970.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan) The European Culture Area: A Systematic Geography, Harper (New York, NY), 1973, revised under name Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov, with wife, Bella Bychkova, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2002.

The Human Mosaic: A Thematic Introduction to Cultural Geography, Harper (New York, NY), 1976, eighth edition, Longman (New York, NY), 1999, tenth edition, W.H. Freeman (New York, NY), 2006.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan; with Mary Lynn Tiller Wier) Deep East Texas Folk: The Tillers, Crenshaws, Woodleys, Goldens, and Other Related Families of Panola and Harrison Counties, Southern Methodist University Printing Department (Dallas, TX), 1976.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan) Texas Log Buildings: A Folk Architecture, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1978.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan) Trails to Texas: Southern Roots of Western Cattle Ranching, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 1981.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan) Texas Graveyards: A Cultural Legacy, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1982.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan; with John L. Bean, Jr., and William M. Holmes) Texas: A Geography, Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 1984.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan) American Log Buildings: An Old World Heritage, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1985.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan; with Matti Kaups) The American Backwoods Frontier: An Ethnic and Ecological Interpretation, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1989.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan) North American Cattle-Ranching Frontiers: Origins, Diffusion, and Differentiation, University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM), 1993.

(Under name Terry G. Jordan; with Jon T. Kilpinen and Charles F. Gritzner) The Mountain West: Interpreting the Folk Landscape, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1997.

(With Bella Bychkova Jordan) Siberian Village: Land and Life in the Sakha Republic, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2001.

(With Alyson L. Greiner) Anglo-Celtic Australia: Colonial Immigration and Cultural Regionalism, Center for American Places (Santa Fe, NM), 2002.

Australia, Chelsea House Publishers (Philadelphia, PA), 2003.

The Upland South: The Making of an American Folk Region and Landscape, Center for American Places (Santa Fe, NM), 2003.

Also contributor to The Making of America: Texas, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 1986.

SIDELIGHTS: Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov’s North American Cattle-Ranching Frontiers: Origins, Diffusion, and Differentiation describes how ranching styles developed in the Old World and then were adapted for use in North America, from the Eastern Seaboard through Mexico and the Great Plains. Jeremy Adelman, in his review of the work for Historian, declared: “Well written, clearly argued, and backed by massive research, it is nothing short of a breathtaking effort at synthesis and comparison.” Adelman concluded: “This monumental work will invigorate frontier history for years.”

In The Upland South: The Making of an American Folk Region and Landscape, Jordan-Bychkov seeks to define a specific region of the United States where various cultural influences produced a unique cultural amalgamation that includes several different ethnic backgrounds commonly found in areas such as the Carolina Low-country and the Chesapeake Tidewater, among others. He explains how the intermarriages in this area are responsible for the creation of this distinct regional culture, and provides a wealth of maps to assist in illustrating his case. Daniel S. Pierce, in a review for the Journal of Southern History, remarked that “Jordan-Bychkov has synthesized a career’s worth of research to produce an important work on the roots and transmission of culture in the region.” James R. Shortridge, writing for the Journal of Cultural Geography, found the book to be “a slim volume with the important, though more limited, goal of using material culture to demonstrate when and where a distinctive culture took root in this region.” The Upland South was the last book Jordan-Bychkov wrote prior to his death from pancreatic cancer in 2003.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, April, 1995, David H. Breen, review of North American Cattle-Ranching Frontiers: Origins, Diffusion, and Differentiation, p. 488.

American Studies International, April, 1990, Clarence Mondale, review of The American Backwoods Frontier: An Ethnic and Ecological Interpretation, p. 96.

Choice, November, 2001, E.J. Vajda, review of Siberian Village: Land and Life in the Sakha Republic, p. 571.

Historian, summer, 1995, Jeremy Adelman, review of North American Cattle-Ranching Frontiers, p. 802.

Journal of American History, June, 1983, Thomas J. Schlereth, review of Texas Graveyards: A Cultural Legacy, p. 109.

Journal of Cultural Geography, March 22, 2004, James R. Shortridge, review of The Upland South: The Making of an American Folk Region and Landscape, p. 106.

Journal of Southern History, November, 1990, Durwood Dunn, review of The American Backwoods Frontier, p. 731; February, 1995, John D.W. Guice, review of North American Cattle-Ranching Frontiers, p. 115; August, 2004, Daniel S. Pierce, review of The Upland South, p. 647.*