Fmr. Carter White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan Died of Cancer

Hamilton Jordan

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/peopleevents/p_georgia.html

Compared to Powell, Hamilton Jordan was a city boy, born and raised in the town of Albany, Georgia. Schoolmates remembered him more for his affable personality than for his performance in the classroom or on the athletic field. He grew up in a political family -- his classmates voted him most likely to become governor some day -- and remained proud of his southern heritage, even when the civil rights movement came to Albany in 1961 in the person of Martin Luther King Jr. After graduating from the University of Georgia, he spent six months in Vietnam before being sent home with black water fever; his tour of duty was long enough for him to conclude "there was no escaping the fact that the war was wrong." Back home in Albany in 1966, hating his job at a bank, Jordan started volunteering for gubernatorial hopeful Jimmy Carter. Though Carter lost, he had found a natural political talent in the twenty-four year old. Four years later, with Jordan managing the campaign, the outcome was different.

Standing in the Oval Office"

After Jimmy became governor and Hamilton was his executive secretary, Hamilton was like the dog who chased the car and caught it. He didn't know what to do," commented one Atlanta reporter. Jordan found his stride, though, when Governor Carter set his sights on the White House. Beginning with a remarkably astute 72-page memo in November 1972, he was the primary architect of one of the most brilliant campaigns in American political history.

Once in the White House, Jordan again struggled to find a balance between policy and politics. Time magazine captured the confusion over his role when it observed, "He is everywhere because of his access to the president. He is nowhere because he has no line of responsibility and can put himself in or take himself out as he -- and the president -- want." Admittedly a poor administrator, and with Carter intent on running his own White House, Jordan did not officially become chief of staff until a major reorganization in the summer of 1979, after the Carter administration was already in big trouble.

"Each is a funnel to the president: Jody from the outside, the media; Hamilton from the inside, the staff," wrote Klein, neatly summing up their White House roles.