Leonard B. Jordan attended the University of Oregon on a football scholarship, graduating in 1923 and earning membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and later became a sheep rancher in Idaho during the Great Depression. Jordan established multiple businesses in Grangeville in 1940, including a farm implement business, a real estate agency, and an automobile dealership. He was elected to the Idaho Senate in 1946, though he lost his seat two years later.