5. Hamilton Jordan, White House Chief of Staff (1944-2008)
Jordan helped manage the election campaign of President Jimmy Carter in 1976. He then became Carter’s chief of staff, serving as the special negotiator on the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979.
He fought off three other cancers — non-Hodgkins lymphoma, prostate cancer and skin cancer — before succumbing to mesothelioma. He attributed his lymphoma to Agent Orange in Vietnam during his military service. He believed that his exposure to asbestos, which led to his mesothelioma, came from his years in the military.
After his earlier battles with cancer, Jordan and his wife founded Camp Sunshine in Decatur, Georgia, a place for children with the disease. He also was an active fundraiser for cancer research.