Gordon, Hugh L., 1922-

Hugh L. Gordon was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1922. He joined the Army Air Corps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, flying a Northrup P-61. During fifteen months of combat duty, Gordon earned several decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. On discharge from the Army, he entered Virginia Polytechnic Institute and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering in 1950 and a Master of Science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1951. Gordon joined the Lockheed-Georgia Company in 1951 as a Manufacturing Technician. He worked in a variety of positions within the company relating to labor and industrial relations, rising to the position of Director of Personnel. Gordon retired from Lockheed-Georgia in 1988. He was a founding member of the Atlanta Employers' Voluntary Merit Employment Association (MEA) and the Private Industry Council of Atlanta (PIC). He also served as a Regional Executive for Region 4 of the National Alliance of Businessmen from 1974 to 1978.

The Atlanta Employers' Voluntary Merit Employment Association (MEA) began in 1965 as a means to improve the employment prospects for minority applicants in the metro-Atlanta area. The organization later changed its name to Metro Employers of Atlanta. Local merit employment associations were developed as part of the Plans for Progress (PfP) program to facilitate affirmative action in metropolitan areas. Plans for Progress started in 1961 in response to President Kennedy's Executive Order 10925, which assured equal employment opportunity in federal contracts. Corporate volunteers worked with the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity to promote EEO compliance. The Lockheed Aircraft Corporation was the first company to sign a Plans for Progress agreeement on May 25, 1961. The Plans for Progress program merged with the National Alliance of Businessmen (NAB) in 1969, which later changed its name to the National Alliance of Business. The NAB was created in 1968 under the leadership of President Lyndon Johnson and Henry Ford. Its mission was to engage the private sector in preparing disadvantaged youth and adults for employment. The group worked closely with successive administrations to implement the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), which was passed in 1973, and the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), which became law in 1982. The National Alliance of Business ceased operation in 2002.