William Hamilton McWhorter Jordan (September 21, 1944 – May 20, 2008[1][2]) was Chief of Staff to President of the United States Jimmy Carter.
Early life
Jordan (who pronounced his last name to rhyme with "burden" instead of "borden") was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He grew up in Albany, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia and 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
Jordan was a key advisor and strategist for Jimmy 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.
Jordan is appreciated today for his shrewd political mind. But in 1976 his youth and casual style gave him a media reputation as a fun-loving, unsophisticated "good ole boy." This turned into a problem during the later days 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, but extensive legal investigations failed to substantiate any of them. Jordan later recalled this as a particularly painful time in his life.
In 1986, he 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.
In 1992, he became a high-level staffer on the presidential campaign of independent candidate H. 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.
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. 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.
Personal
He and his wife, a pediatric oncology nurse, founded a camp for children with cancer - Camp Sunshine Retreat - in Georgia. He was an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.
Death
Jordan died on May 20, 2008, aged 63, from mesothelioma. He had survived several other forms of cancer earlier in his life including melanoma and prostate cancer.
External links
References
|
