78 Photo Essay: Jordan Hyche

GIS Analyst, KFS, LLC

Words by Terrell Manasco | Images by Al Blanton

Jordan Hyche was a Cubs fan long before they won the 2016 World Series. Ironically, he didn't like baseball when he was growing up. 

That changed in high school when Jordan went to a Braves-Cubs game with his dad and uncle. “I was like, whoever wins, I'll just be a fan of that team,” he recalls. “The Cubs won—and they were terrible at that time. That’s how I became a Cubs fan.”

A 2010 Cordova High graduate, Jordan spent two years at Bevill State Community College, then transferred to the University of North Alabama in Florence. where he fell in love with geography. “Two friends of mine, Drew Gilbert and Logan Sides, had told me about classes in geography,” he says. “At the time, I didn’t know geography could lead to jobs in the utility field and different private sectors.”

His fondness for UNA’s positive environment and his love of maps encouraged Jordan to delve more into the geography field. “I focused in what’s called GIS—Geographic Information Systems,” he explains. “It deals with solving real-world problems through maps and spatial visualizations and in my case, creating maps of utility infrastructure.”

GIS technology is used in a variety of ways. For example, when a blown electrical transformer causes a power outage, live digital maps integrated with remote hardware can pinpoint the location of the problem for field crews. “You can click on a transformer in the map and it will bring up information, like when it was installed, voltage, make, and model, etc.,” Jordan says. “You can find where the power outage is, and which streets could be affected.”

After graduating from UNA in 2014, Jordan mapped out fiber optics for a company in Mobile. A year later, he moved closer to home, doing GIS-related work in Birmingham and Jasper. He now works for a Huntsville-based company called KFS. “We deal with government installation contracts, so I'm always on the road,” he says. 

Although he doesn’t sleep in his own bed much, there are a few perks that come with the job. A history buff, he has been fortunate to visit several historical landmarks. Last year, he spent a few weeks working in the Pearl Harbor area, and on a few US Air Force bases in the UK. He even made a few friends.

“We were mapping out an American WWII cemetery,” Jordan says. “I met two Englishmen over there walking through the cemetery whose parents had lived in that area during the war. They told me about their experiences, the food shortages, and so on.”

Traveling doesn’t leave much time for leisure these days. However, Jordan admits he’s “big into fly-fishing” and enjoys bass fishing at his family’s place on the Black Warrior River. 

“But I can’t give away my secret spots,” he laughs. 

No doubt, those have been GIS-mapped out too. 78