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Frank Jordan

mayor of San Francisco

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ5487591 ↗
Source-derived summary

Francis Michael Jordan (born February 20, 1935) is an American politician and former police chief who served as the mayor of San Francisco from 1992 to 1996. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life and education

Jordan was born in San Francisco in 1935 and graduated from Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory High School in 1953. He studied political science and government at the University of San Francisco during his time on the police force and graduated in 1975.

Police career and Chief of Police

Before becoming mayor, Jordan served as the Chief of the San Francisco Police Department from 1986 until 1990, at which point he resigned to run for mayor. He joined the force in 1957 and was named Chief of Police by then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein in 1986.

Mayor of San Francisco

Jordan succeeded Art Agnos as the Mayor of San Francisco from 1992, until 1996. Jordan continued Agnos' campaign against the city's chapter of Food Not Bombs and introduced a controversial program called Matrix which aimed to deal with the city's homelessness problems. During his mayoral tenure Jordan played a role in converting the Presidio Army Base into part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, bringing Bay Area Rapid Transit to the San Francisco International Airport, keeping the San Francisco Giants in the city and balancing the city's budget. Jordan was challenged for mayor in the 1995 mayoral election by Willie Brown, who was termed out of the State Assembly.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Frank Jordan” as mayor of San Francisco. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1935, 1992, 1996, 1953—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1935-02-20, 1935-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Frank, Jordan and mayor can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as mayor of San Francisco. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5487591. VIAF identifies the subject as 9346159820928914000009. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 1992, 1996 and 1953.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Frank Jordan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Frank Jordan primary sources, Frank Jordan archive and Frank research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Frank Jordan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.