John Gordon, the retired Air Force general who was deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency before becoming the first-ever administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), died Sunday. He was 73.
Current NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty — no relation — was among those remembering the agency’s first leader Monday on Twitter.
Some people with knowledge of Gordon’s passing said he suffered from a long illness, then died after having a stroke this month. Gordon’s family could not be reached by deadline, but submitted a memorial to the local Missourian: a news publication staffed by journalism students from Gordon’s alma mater, the University of Missouri.
Then-President Bill Clinton nominated Gordon to lead the NNSA in 2000, the year Gordon ended his nearly three-year tenure as CIA deputy director. The general’s confirmation in the GOP-held Senate took only about a month and a half, under then-Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.).
Gordon led the then-newly semiautonomous Department of Energy branch from 2000 to 2002, helping the sub-agency find its legs after a protracted — and still resonating — debate in Washington about how the executive branch should care for the U.S. nuclear stockpile in the post-Cold War era.
Gordon left the NNSA in June 2002, and the agency relied on interim leadership until the Senate in May 2003 confirmed Linton Brooks as Gordon’s full-time replacement. Gordon retired from government service in 2004 and lived in Columbia, Mo., until his death, according to his memorial.
