Former President, Tech Alumnus Dies at 100

The Georgia Tech community, the nation, and the world have lost a towering yet humble, hardworking man of faith who devoted decades to enhancing democracy and freedom, improving health, and preventing and resolving conflicts at home and across the globe. Jimmy Carter, Class of 1946, HON Ph.D. 1979, the 39th president of the United States, and the 76th governor of Georgia, died Dec. 29 at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100.

Born Oct. 1, 1924, James Earl Carter Jr. grew up in the rural South Georgia town of Archery and attended public school in Plains. He went on to attend nearby Georgia Southwestern College, transferring to Georgia Tech in 1942. A year later, Carter transferred again, this time to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated in 1946. In the Navy, he served on submarines in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, rising to the rank of lieutenant.

That year, he also married the woman who would be his lifelong partner in all things, Rosalynn Smith. When Carter’s father died in 1953, he resigned his commission and returned with Rosalynn and their three children to Plains, where he took over the family peanut business. He also launched a career in politics, initially on the Sumter County School Board. In 1962, he was elected to the Georgia Senate as a Democrat. He lost his first gubernatorial campaign in 1966, but won four years later.
 
At the end of 1974, he announced his candidacy for president of the United States. On Nov. 2, 1976, he defeated Republican Gerald Ford and served one term. Though he, and the nation, faced numerous challenges during the late 1970s, Carter’s presidency is notable for the Camp David Accords, the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Soviet Union, educational reform, and environmental protection legislation.
 
After leaving the White House in 1981, the Carters returned to their home state and, with Emory University, founded The Carter Center, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization that works to resolve conflict, promote democracy, protect human rights, and prevent disease and other afflictions. From leading the international effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease, to mitigating conflict in dozens of countries, to observing elections at home and abroad, the Center has touched millions of lives.
 
The permanent facilities of The Carter Presidential Center were dedicated in October 1986, and include the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta and the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park in Plains.

For almost 40 years, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter volunteered one week a year for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit that helps financially disadvantaged people in the U.S. and other countries renovate and build their own homes. Carter also taught Sunday school in the Maranatha Baptist Church of Plains and authored or co-authored more than 30 books, ranging from presidential memoirs to reflections on faith, and even a volume of his poems.

In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

Rosalynn Carter died in Plains on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter received Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage in 2017. Accepting the prize, Carter said, “In every respect, my heart is with Georgia Tech, and this award has a special meaning for me.” As grandson Jason Carter observed, “There is no reason for anyone to believe that some kid from Plains could ever become president of the United States. But he did. The opportunity for a single individual to make a huge difference in the world is real.” When he received the Institute’s first ever honorary degree in 1979, Carter joked that it took becoming president of the United States to get a Georgia Tech degree.

In his book, A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety, Carter wrote with his typical calm optimism, “Rosalynn and I have visited more than 145 countries, and both of us are as active as we have ever been. We are blessed with good health and look to the future with eagerness and confidence, but are prepared for inevitable adversity when it comes.”