ALBANY — The man former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday called a master political strategist in 1960 took on Albany High School’s junior-senior dance.

“Hamilton Jordan put together the first sophomore-sophomore,” said Albany attorney Spencer Lee, a few years older than Jordan, who would become Carter’s chief of staff. “They had their party the same night the juniors and seniors had theirs — they booked a band.”

Jordan, whose family moved to Albany from Charlotte when he was a child, died Tuesday at his home in Atlanta. He was 63.

Part of a closely knit group of Albany students who attended one of the city’s two white high schools before desegregation, Lee, Jordan and others went from Albany to the University of Georgia, already familiar with Jordan’s sometimes irreverent wit.

“Hamilton had a lot of talent. He respected authority and respected civil obedience,” Lee said. “He would take a charge at the very basis of society, such as the junior-senior.”

Dick and Adelaide Jordan raised their three children at 907 Fourth Ave. and, while Hamilton never returned to live in Albany after high school, the city remained a permanent part of his identity, and he relied on Albany friends for updates, Lee said.

“Hamilton was a placed person and his place was Albany, Georgia,” Lee said.

Jordan had been working on a book about his youth and young adulthood — in Albany and as a student in Athens — when he died, said Lee.

“He kept up more than people think — about what was happened in Albany and Southwest Georgia. He was sharp as a tack and his ability to recall where he was on particular days and who he was with. He never let go of where he grew up, his roots, and his formative years served him well.”

Jordan would detail an evening during 1961 when his father took him to observe a march in Albany led by Martin Luther King Jr.

“Hamilton, growing up in Albany, got a little dose of everything,” Lee said.

Jordan became involved in Carter’s 1966 campaign for governor while still in college, where he was occasionally known as “Albany Fats” for his skill with a pool cue, said Albany lawyer Bill Underwood, who got to know Jordan well at UGA.

“Among his friends, he could be kind of a cutdown,” Underwood said. “You had to be quick with a comeback.

Underwood returned to Albany after serving in the Army to find Carter at the Jordan home, explaining why he was running for governor.

Jordan “was incredibly bright. I think he started working on campaigns way back in high school. He just learned the art of politics,” Underwood said.

“The next thing I knew, I was visiting him in the White House,” he said. “He was at the seat of power and easily one of the most powerful men in the world at the time.”

Even in the White House, Jordan never ceased to think about Albany or his friends. Nor did he lose his sense of humor.

Whisking visiting friends into a secretary’s office during the arrival of an entourage that accompanied Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Jordan “looked out the door and made a face at them,” Lee said.

“He could take those heavy moments in stride and not let it wrap him up like he was self-important,” he said. “But he went and did the business of the nation.”

After Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980, Jordan ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 1986. He lost to Wyche Fowler, who won the general election.

Jordan worked for H. Ross Perot’s presidential bid in 1992.

He died Tuesday at his home in Atlanta. Jordan was 63.

His fight with cancer began 22 years ago, when he was diagnosed with lymphoma, followed by bouts with melanoma and prostate cancer.

A memorial service was planned Friday at The Carter Center.

Jordan told the Atlanta Press Club in March that he was a fan of Barack Obama in his race for the Democratic nomination. Jordan visited the club to discuss his fight with cancer.

“I’ve been to the edge of life and had to face my own mortality,” he said. “I’m here to tell you, I’m not through yet. We’ve been blessed with great medicine and great friends.”

Jordan is survived by his wife, Dorothy, and their three children.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.