Nonnenmacher Family Remembers Son

Penned in child-like handwriting, Jordan Nonnenmacher’s elementary school assignment proclaims that he was a “good skatborder” and his aspirations to become the “best skatborder ever.” More than a decade later, his passion for skateboarding lives on even after his death. Friends have placed skateboards into the shape of a cross at the spot where graduate of North Kingstown High School.

His obsession with the sport began when his older brother Derek, five years his senior, got his first skateboard. It wasn’t long before the three-year-old Jordan harassed his parents, Julie and Mario, into getting him his own skateboard – a “junky old” skateboard the family bought second-hand.

“All he did was roll down the hill with it at first,” said Mario. “But then he got recognizably better, to the point where he and his brother were equal and then on until he surpassed his brother.”

Though he spent much of his time at the skate park with a close knit group of friends, racking up the number of skinned knees and elbows, Jordan was known among many parents as an extremely polite and courteous teenager.

“Other parents wanted him to be friends with their kids because he was so sweet and polite,” said Julie.

When it came to his own parents, however, Jordan gave his mother plenty of miniature heart attacks throughout the years with his stubborn attitude and penchant for wandering off. According to his parents, he was incredibly attracted to lights – from lava lamps to Christmas lights. One year, Julie took her two-year-old son to the mall to have his picture taken with the Easter Bunny.

“We were waiting in line and I turned around for a second and he was gone,” said Julie.

At that point, Julie began “freaking out” and alerted mall security. Soon the whole mall began searching for the missing toddler. Three minutes later, a mall security guard appeared with Jordan in tow. According to the guard, he had found little Jordan in Spencer’s Gifts – a store filled with lava lamps and flashing lights..

“I was not lost,” Jordan sternly told his mother, explaining that he went into the store to look at the lights.

“He was a stubborn little guy,” Julie remembered.

Jordan’s stubbornness was also renowned throughout the family, and even with friends’ parents. One parent remembered when Jordan was younger and insisted on seating in the driver’s seat of the car. Though all the parents were around, he somehow was able to put the car into gear and rolled into a small ditch. When Julie asked told her friend she couldn’t believe she had let her son do that, her friend replied, “You had no choice. He wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Their son’s rambunctious behavior left Mario and Julie worried for how he would react when his little sister, Taylor, was born when he was two years old.

“He was such a little rascal so I was worried about how he would react with a little baby around,” said Julie. “So I told him to be gentle and just kiss her feet. He just treated her like a piece of gold.”

While putting together poster boards for Friday’s funeral services, Julie and Mario stumbled upon an invitation the siblings had created for “Taylor and Jordan’s Circus.” Though the two only distributed the invites to the Nonnenmacher household, the brother-sister duo charged a quarter for admission to a show of “juggling, acrobats, standing on lions and much more.”

His family also remembered Jordan’s keen ability to understand technology, which he started at a young age when he plopped himself in front of a computer when he was a toddler. Years later, Jordan became the family’s unofficial IT guy. His mother was his primary client, regularly asking him to fix things and prompting his typical response of “What did you do now?”

“I’m going to be really lost without him,” said Julie.

will be held Friday night at the Nardolillo Funeral Home – South County Chapel at 1111 Boston Neck Road in Narragansett. Visiting hours will run from 4 to 8 p.m. with a funeral service to immediately follow at 8 p.m.