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According to the award nomination, after graduating high school, Gordon attended California University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (Cum Laude) in Art with a concentration in sculpture in 1982. It was during this time Gordon cut his teeth and established himself as a photojournalist.
Gordon's photography background included working as a full-time staff photographer, beginning in 1981 working for the former Brownsville Telegraph, Herald- Standard, and several Pittsburgh newspapers in Brownsville, Pa.; and the Herald-Standard, in Uniontown, Pa. As a freelancer, his work also appeared in the Tribune-Review, the Pittsburgh Press and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, from 1981 - 1984. During this time, he sold news and feature images to the United Press International and Associated Press, Pittsburgh bureaus.
In 1984, following in his father's footsteps, Gordon enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was selected as the Distinguished Honor Graduate from the Infantry Training Brigade, basic training and advanced infantry school at Fort Benning, Ga. He was then assigned to
the First Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas (1984- 1986), Delta Co., 2'' Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, where he served as an infantryman, including duty as an M-60 machine gunner and later as a squad leader. He was later appointed to the division's public affairs office as a photojournalist after his leadership discovered he had been a civilian news photographer before entering the military. While stationed at Fort Hood, he studied commercial photography at Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas, where he worked as a stringer for the Killeen Daily Herald as a feature photographer and sports writer.
After leaving the Active component, Gordon continued his education by earning a Master's Degree in Mass Communications in 1992 (Magna Cum Laude) from California University of Pennsylvania. He also continued his service as both a U.S. Army Reserve Soldier, and as a Department of the Army civilian employee working as a public affairs specialist at the 99' Regional Support Command in Oakdale, Pa. He is a graduate of the Public Affairs Officer Course, Fort George G. Meade, Md. As a civilian photojournalist and Soldier, he covered assignments all over the world, including in Germany, Belgium, Bosnia, Holland, Korea, Japan, Egypt, Panama, Honduras, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala,Canada, Mexico, Kuwait and Iraq. 
Mobilized as an Army Reserve Soldier, then Master Sergeant Gordon, he served as the Army Reserve's senior photojournalist in Iraq in 2004, including missions in the International Zone and Baghdad, Balad and Mosul, and several forward operational bases in those locations.
Gordon hung up his uniform after 24 years of service. Gordon amassed a diverse collection of military awards too numerous to mention. However, among his proudest moments was winning the Department of Defense's Thomas Jefferson award for single- published photograph in 1989. Then, as editor of the Checkerboard, the 99's flagship publication, he guided the magazine to an unprecedented two-year run capturing the Department of Defense Thomas Jefferson award for the best military-funded magazine. Through the 1990s, the Checkerboard received more individual contributor awards than any other publication in the DoD.
Gordon was authorized to wear a number of military medals and awards. However, he most prized was his Infantryman Cord. During the Korean War, fighting Infantryman received special insignia, the light blue cord, so that everyone would know that the Soldier was an Infantryman who would be fighting on the front lines. Gordon wore his Infantryman Cord with great pride. Not long before his passing, Gordon moved back to his 115-year-old Ohio River home in Sewickley, Pa., and was restoring a church in Brownsville. His personal interests included boating, writing poetry and fiction, and designing and creating large-scale sculpture. He recently completed the full conversion of a 30-foot steel fishing vessel to a pleasure trawler.
"Jack Gordon is remembered as a mentor, coach, leader and friend to so many," Harlow added. "Recognizing him with the Joe Galloway Lifetime Achievement Award, our association's most prestigious, ensures his contributions, and lifetime of
service and dedication, will be remembered always."