Hamilton Jordan
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder William Hamilton McWhorter Jordan (Template:IPAc-en<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>) (September 21, 1944 – May 20, 2008)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>The Washington Post: Architect Of Carter Presidency</ref> was an American politician who served as Chief of Staff to President of the United States Jimmy Carter.
Early life
Template:More citations needed section Jordan was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, the son of Adelaide (McWhorter) and Richard Lawton Jordan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He grew up in Albany, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Jordan graduated with an A.B. in political science in 1967. After being disqualified from military service due to leg problems, he worked as a civilian volunteer in Vietnam during the war there, assisting refugees.
Political career
In 1970, at the age of 26, Jordan ran Jimmy Carter's successful gubernatorial campaign, which included a Democratic primary election fight against former Governor Carl Sanders and a less eventful general election against the Republican Hal Suit. While serving as Governor Carter's executive assistant, Jordan wrote a lengthy memorandum detailing a strategy for winning the 1976 Democratic Primary.<ref name="Lyman">Template:Cite news</ref> Years later, Jordan's memo served as the "game plan" for Carter's 1976 presidential bid.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Jordan was a key advisor and strategist for Carter during the 1976 presidential campaign and during Carter's administration, serving as White House Chief of Staff in 1979–1980 (Carter, who took office in 1977, had previously not seen the need formally to appoint an aide to such a post). Jordan played a powerful role in the formulation of election strategies and government policies.<ref name="Lyman"/>
In 1976 Jordan's youth and casual style gave him a media reputation as a fun-loving, partying, unsophisticated "good ole boy." This turned into a problem during the last year of the Carter administration, when Jordan became a lightning rod for critics of the president across the political spectrum. The media repeated rumors of coarse and even criminal behavior by Jordan, including supposed cocaine usage and anonymous sex at the infamous Studio 54 disco in New York City. Though extensive legal investigations failed to substantiate any of the rumors, Jordan later recalled this as a particularly painful time in his life.<ref name="Jordan 2000">Template:Cite book</ref>
According to one often repeated story from this period, Jordan stared at the breasts of the Egyptian ambassador's wife at a Washington reception and remarked, "I have always wanted to see the pyramids".<ref name="pyramids">Template:Cite web</ref> The story was told in various versions, all based on anonymous sources. Jordan denied it ever took place in his memoir No Such Thing as a Bad Day.<ref name="Jordan 2000"/> CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite later recalled that the network's coverage of the cocaine allegations against Jordan was the "worst story he had ever broadcast."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
(Jordan's associate, Timothy Kraft, the 1980 Carter campaign manager, was accused of cocaine use at a party in New Orleans and left the campaign some five weeks before the general election. He was cleared in 1981 by special prosecutor Gerald J. Gallinghouse, a Republican former U.S. Attorney who had earlier prosecuted corruption in the Louisiana state government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>)
In 1986, Jordan ran for the Democratic nomination for one of Georgia's seats in the United States Senate. He lost the primary to Representative Wyche Fowler, who went on to win the general election against the Republican incumbent Mack Mattingly.<ref name="Lyman"/>
In 1992, he became a high-level staffer on the presidential campaign of independent candidate Ross Perot. In later years he served both as a member of the founders council and as an important public advocate for Unity08, a political movement focused on reforming the American two party system.<ref name="Lyman"/>
Jordan was portrayed by Kyle Chandler in the 2012 film Argo.
Later life
Jordan was chief executive of the Association of Tennis Professionals when they took control of the professional men's world tennis tour in 1990, replacing the Men's Tennis Council.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His nephew, R. Lawton Jordan, served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs during Bill Clinton's administration.Template:Citation needed Jordan authored the book No Such Thing as a Bad Day in 2000.
Personal life
He and his wife Dorothy, a pediatric oncology nurse, founded a camp for children with cancer – Camp Sunshine – and a camp for children with diabetes – Camp Kudzu – in Georgia.Template:Citation needed He was an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. An earlier marriage, to Nancy Konigsmark, ended in divorce.Template:Citation needed
His son, Hamilton Jordan Jr., is a member of the experimental metal band Genghis Tron.Template:Citation needed His two other children, Kathleen and Alex, both attended Kenyon College. Alex, Kathleen and Hamilton Jr. helped to complete their father's memoir about growing up in the 1950s South, A Boy From Georgia. <ref name="Jordan 2015">Template:Cite book</ref> Jordan wrote about 90% of the work, with Kathleen, a TV/film comedy executive, penning the balance.<ref>WBGO88.3FM Allan Wolper Talks to Kathleen Jordan Template:Webarchive, wbgo.org; accessed September 19, 2014.</ref> Jordan's original title for the memoir was Meet the Gottheimers, a reference to the fact that he had discovered, not until he was in college, that his maternal grandmother had been Jewish. The memoir was submitted to possible publishers,<ref name=Bosman>Template:Cite news</ref> with the University of Georgia Press announcing in 2015 that it would publish the book that fall.<ref name=Sharp> Template:Cite news</ref>
Death
Jordan died on May 20, 2008, aged 63, from peritoneal mesothelioma, which he believed resulted from his exposure to asbestos during his volunteer service in Vietnam. He had survived several other forms of cancer earlier in his life, including diffuse histiocytic non-Hodgkin lymphoma, melanoma, and prostate cancer.<ref name="Jordan 2015"/>
References
External links
- "The Georgia Mafia", American Experience, PBS, 2002
- "Hamilton Jordan coming to UGA to write book on Carter presidency", UGA Office of Public Affairs News Release, Mar 9, 2005
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- Pages with broken file links
- 1944 births
- 2008 deaths
- Assistants to the president of the United States
- American campaign managers
- American people of Jewish descent
- American political consultants
- Carter administration personnel
- Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state)
- Deaths from mesothelioma in the United States
- Politicians from Albany, Georgia
- Politicians from Atlanta
- Politicians from Charlotte, North Carolina
- University of Georgia alumni
- United States presidential advisors
- White House chiefs of staff
- Phi Delta Theta members