Hamilton Jordan (White House Chief of Staff, Carter Admin., 1944—2008)

Hamilton Jordan was a political schemer from middle school, according to his mother. She would say, if he wasn’t running for school office himself he was campaigning for one of his cousin. Infamous for his laid back style and attitude, Jordan was far from the typical smooth-edged politician. Jordan attended the University of Georgia, graduating in five and a half years with a degree in political science.

Jordan had a long and close professional relationship with former President Jimmy Carter. He first worked for Jimmy Carter as a volunteer in his unsuccessful run for governor in 1966. In 1970 when Carter won the gubernatorial race, Jordan became the governor’s executive secretary. During Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign, Jordan was a key advisor and strategist. Once Carter was in office, Jordan became his White House Chief of Staff.

While in Washington, Jordan was accused of a number of scandalous acts, such as spitting a drink in a woman’s face at a bar, insulting the ambassador to Egypt’s wife and even doing cocaine at a nightclub in New York City. Jordan consistently denied the accusations and some, such as the cocaine usage, were proven false. Jordan is now remembered as being a brilliant political mind.

Jordan’s political involvement did not end with the Carter Administration. In 1986, Jordan himself ran for a seat in the United States Senate, but was unsuccessful. He also became very active in the push for a third-party movement and assisted Texas businessman H. Ross Perot in his third-party presidential campaign in 1992.

In his later life, Hamilton Jordan struggled with a number of cancers, including lymphoma and prostate cancer as well as the mesothelioma that would kill him; and he was able to create something positive from his struggles. Jordan and his wife, a pediatric oncology nurse, started a camp for children battling cancer as well as a camp for children dealing with diabetes. Jordan also served as an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and wrote a book about his battle with cancer called No Such Thing as a Bad Day.

Hamilton Jordan died in his home in Atlanta, Georgia in May of 2008, surrounded by his family.