Joseph Clayton Gordon, born in Houston Texas on November 4, 1948 and grew up in 5th Ward and was the youngest of four (4) boys. He attended Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School from Kindergarten thru 9th grade and went on to attend Kashmere Gardens Jr Sr High School and graduated in 1967. Growing up his favorite sport was baseball and upon his arrival at Kashmere he expressed his interest to Coach Henry L. Stevenson who immediately informed Joseph that he knew who he was and that he was waiting for him to enroll. Ironically, Mr. Steve….. as he was called by all of his players… knew everything about him due to the fact that he was so well acquainted with Joe’s two (2) older brothers baseball skills who played at Phillis Wheatley. Mr. Steve statement that he wished they had played for him at Kashmere. From his discussion with Mr. Steve, Joe had a feeling of comfort and knew right away that he had made the right choice to attend Kashmere instead of Wheatley. Mr. Steve was an outstanding baseball coach and led Kashmere to the state tournament Joe’s junior and senior season. They were state runner-up his junior season and Kashmere was crowned State Championship his senior season.
Immediately upon graduating from Kashmere Joe and his teammate Kenneth Jones signed a professional baseball contract to play in the Rookie League for the Cincinnati Reds in Virginia. Unfortunately their experience there did not last as long as they had hoped and they both received unconditionally release by the Reds in August 1967. About a month following his unconditional release from the Reds he immediately enrolled as a student at Texas Southern University and 4 years later (1971) he received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science.
In June 1973 he was hired by American Airlines in Fleet Service and two years later he became heavily involved in Union politics and after successfully running as a candidate in several Union elections he began to climb the ladder of success within the Union. In August 2006 Joe was appointed as the International Secretary-Treasurer of the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO to complete the term of the former Secretary-Treasurer who decided to retire. His appointment required him to relocate to New York for 3.5 years then to Washington D C for another 3.5 years. He retired from American Airlines in 2008 after 35 years of service and in 2009 by a unanimous vote of the Delegates at the National Convention he was elected to continue his tenure as International Secretary-Treasurer of the Union. Joseph served in that capacity for four years until his retirement in 2013.
He married his wife Betty Arceneaux in Houston on January 9, 1971 and together they raised 3 fantastic children that have grown to make them both very proud parents. On January 9, 2025 they were blessed to be able to celebrate their 54th wedding anniversary. He and Betty are currently the proud grandparents of 5 beautiful grandchildren and living a quiet life in North Dallas where he and his family has lived since January 1988.
