Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday that the campaign memorandum compiled for him in 1972 by Hamilton Jordan, which detailed in about 80 pages how a peanut farmer turned Southern governor could win the White House, remains a timeless user's guide for anyone with political aspirations.

"Possibly the most complex political question on earth is how can somebody go from unknown to president of the United States," Carter said from the Ivan Allen III Pavilion at the Carter Center in Atlanta. "Whether you have $200 million or you have nothing, the approach Hamilton described for my campaign is still a valuable lesson for anyone interested in a successful campaign."

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Former President Jimmy Carter said Hamilton Jordan wrote the book on how to get a little-known person elected president.

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Jordan, 63, who became Carter's White House chief of staff, died Tuesday at his Atlanta home after a long struggle with cancer.

A memorial service for family and close friends of Jordan will be at 2 p.m. Friday at the Carter Center.

Carter's response to Jordan's death was one of many from people in Georgia and elsewhere. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) called him "a brilliant ... strategist ... [who] made a lasting contribution to national politics."

President Bush said he was "a man whose love for American politics and his country took him at a young age from the state Capitol in Georgia to the White House," adding he "was also a great community leader, using lessons learned during his personal struggle against cancer to encourage other cancer survivors."

Jordan, who battled cancer multiple times over more than two decades, was viewed among cancer researchers and survivors much as he was in the political arena: as an inspiring and gifted strategist. His 2000 memoir, "No Such Thing as a Bad Day," was a national best-seller. He founded the Georgia Cancer Coalition, which CEO Bill Todd says still uses Jordan's blueprint for improving cancer care — much the same way Carter used his campaign memo.

"He worked on the strategic policy initiatives to improve cancer care, and he was also effective working with individual cancer patients," Todd said. "Especially those newly diagnosed, giving them encouragement and a sense of fight."

"He did the same thing he did when he was with the Carter campaign," added James Heath, director of California's Nanosystems Biology Cancer Center, where Jordan served on the external advisory board. "He had a strategy that trumped everybody else. He was like a chess player, always thinking ahead. But he was self-effacing ... so you were playing with a chess master and you didn't realize it. You thought you were talking to someone from a farm in Georgia."