OBITUARY

James M. Gordon, who during the Cold War served as an undercover CIA

officer throughout the world, died of cancer Nov. 6 at his home in

Newport Beach. He was 75.

Mr. Gordon had just turned 17 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl

Harbor in December, 1941. He quit high school in his native Los Angeles,

joined the Navy and soon thereafter married his childhood sweetheart, who

remained his wife until her death 53 years later. Aboard the U.S.

battleship Tennessee, he participated in major battles at Tarawa, Iwo

Jima, Kwajalein, Guam, the Philippines and Okinawa.

Following the war, Mr. Gordon specialized in Germanic studies at the

University of Southern California and, as a graduate student at the

University of Zurich in Switzerland. He hoped to lead the scholarly life

of a professor on some tranquil university campus in California, but the

newly formed CIA in 1951 induced him to pursue a career he never had

envisioned.

Mr. Gordon and his wife became avid and skilled sailors who enjoyed

leisurely voyages along the Mexican coast. In his final years, he visited

a little bar near his house, the Snug Harbor, almost daily.

Mr. Gordon is survived by a son, Michael, of Alexandria, Va., and a

daughter, Rowena Gordon, of Monterey, Calif.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Our Lady Mount Carmel in Newport

Beach. His will be buried at Pacific View Cemetery in Corona del Mar.