Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Has Died
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Jimmy Carter has died at age 100, his family announced today.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” Chip Carter, one of his sons, said in a statement shared by the Carter Center. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
He was the nation's longest-lived president, and turned 100 in October 2024. Carter never expected to live such a long life, he shared in 2019, saying "I think the best explanation for [a long life] is to marry the best spouse: someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life."
Born James Earl Carter, Jr. in 1924 in Plains, Georgia, the son of a peanut farmer and a nurse, he attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. That same year, he married Rosalynn Smith, who was a friend of his sister's and from his hometown of Plains.
In 1953, following his father's death, Carter resigned from the Navy and returned to Plains to take over the family farm. Two years later, he ran for his first office, the Sumter County Board of Education, and in 1962, he was elected to the Georgia State Senate. In 1970, Carter was elected Governor of Georgia, and in 1976, he was elected the 39th President of the United States.
He served one term, during which he established the Department of Energy and Department of Education. In the foreign policy realm, he also oversaw the Camp David agreement of 1978 between Egypt and Israel, established diplomatic relations with China, and completed negotiations of the SALT II nuclear limitation treaties.
Under his presidency, too, Carter dealt with the 1979 oil crisis, and the Iran hostage crisis—wherein an Iranian militant group took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking hostage 52 American citizens for 444 days. Historians point to the hostage crisis as one of the reasons Carter lost reelection.
Following his tenure as president, he established the Carter Center with the aim of advancing human rights around the world. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work with the organization. He was also a prolific author, writing 32 books during his lifetime, including A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety, which he published in 2015.
In 2022, Carter filed a brief supporting an appeal by conservation groups against the construction of a road in Alaska, through Izembek National Wildlife Reefuge. "My name is Jimmy Carter," he wrote. "In my lifetime, I have been a farmer, a naval officer, a Sunday school teacher, an outdoorsman, a democracy activist, a builder, governor of Georgia and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. And from 1977 to 1981, I had the privilege of serving as the 39th president of the United States."
The Carter Center announced on February 18, 2023 that Carter decided to receive hospice care at home "instead of additional medical intervention," though did not specify why he had been hospitalized. He is predeceased by his wife, Rosalynn, who passed away on November 19. He is survived by their four children, along with 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. One of his grandsons, Jeremy Carter, passed away at age 28 in 2015.
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