After a long and fruitful 44 year retirement, former President Jimmy Carter died peacefully in Hospice care in his hometown of Plains, Georgia on December 29th, 2024. His state funeral was held in Washington D.C. on January 8th, 2025, and flags have been ordered to be flown at half-mast until January 29th, 2025. President Carter is the first former president to reach 100 years of age.
As former president Jimmy Carter’s life has come to a close, it is important to remember his remarkable service to not only the American people, but to the world. Carter was born in Plains, Georgia on October 1st, 1924, to Earl and Lillian Carter on the Carter peanut farm. His mother, Lillian, worked as a local nurse while his father, Earl, managed their family farm with the help of relatives. Jimmy Carter received a relatively modest upbringing, something evidenced by Carter farming his own small plot of land to make an income of his own at the age of 14. Later in life, Carter often reflected on these first years as being the beginning of his path towards responsibility and growth.
In 1942, at the age of 18, Jimmy Carter left Plains, Georgia, for the first time to attend Georgia Southwestern College in nearby Dublin, Georgia, where he was set to pursue a degree in science. However, he would not stay there for long. In 1943, during the height of World War II, he transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy in accordance with his desire to serve his country. While enrolled there, Carter met his future wife, Rosalynn Smith, whom he would be married to for the next 80 years. After completing his studies at the Naval Academy, Carter served in the U.S. Navy for seven years, before ultimately deciding to transfer to the Navy Reserve in 1953.
After retiring from military service in 1961, Jimmy Carter relocated to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, and revived his family’s peanut farm business. However, his fervent desire to serve his country was still persistent, and after serving as a leader in his church and on the local school board, Carter wished to run for public office. Carter’s political aspirations took an official start when he successfully contested for a seat in the Georgia Senate, a role he would hold from 1963 to 1967. After the end of his Senate term, Jimmy Carter decided to take a three year exodus from politics before successfully running for Georgia’s governorship in 1970, a position that won him wide political acclaim.
After initiating various welfare programs and major construction projects as governor, Carter decided to contest for the Democratic nomination for the 1976 presidential election. Despite facing major opposition within the Democratic Party, Carter’s humility and friendly persona aided him to win the nomination. Ultimately, he would later win the 1976 presidential election and became the 41st President of the United States.
As president, Jimmy Carter excelled in diplomacy and foreign affairs. In 1978, Carter negotiated the Camp David Accords, which defined the border between Israel & Egypt, and organized a bilateral peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. This treaty saw a dramatic decrease in tension in the Middle East, which had reached an unprecedented high in the 1970s. In addition, Carter established the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), colloquially known as the Superfund program, to resolve pollution across the nation. This law was aimed towards decreasing pollution in the United States by 25% by the year 2020.
After leaving office in 1980, Jimmy Carter established the Carter Center in 1982, a non-profit organization devoted to further the protection of human rights and welfare. Carter identified the Carter Center’s purpose as being,“… filling vacuums where people don’t want to do anything. We talk about poor people in need, and this is the best way I know to close that gap between rich people and the people who’ve never had a decent place to live.”
The Carter Center’s first accomplishment took place in the late 1980s, when it
initiated major steps towards eradicating the Guinea worm parasite disease. Its attempts led to the eventual eradication of the disease, a drastic decrease from the pre-1980s level of 3.5 millions cases per year. Jimmy Carter also utilized the Carter Center as a means to negotiate and encourage peace in war-torn parts of the world.
During the later part of his retirement, Carter also served as an honorary chair for the World Justice Project and the Continuity of Government Commission, a role he held with great esteem.
Carter was also a frequent volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, a role he used to serve his community by building homes for the homeless.
As a prolific author, Carter wrote 23 books that varied from memoirs to children’s books. His 2003 novel, “The Hornet’s Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War”, became the first book of fiction ever published by a U.S. president. In 2002, at the age 78, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in diplomacy and “striving for world peace”.
Carter is survived by his four children and twenty-two grandchildren and great–grandchildren.
