The passing of former President Jimmy Carter at 100 years old causes a time of remembering and reflection. Carter was the country’s 39th President having served in that role from January 1977 to January 1981.

To put that in perspective, Carter followed President Ford, the country’s only unelected President, who had followed President Nixon, the country’s only President to resign from office. Ford can be remembered for his pardoning of Nixon and his WIN buttons (“Whip Inflation Now”).

Carter started his presidential campaign as “Jimmy who?” When he told his Mother he was running for President, she asked “President of what?” Yet, he seemed to have good qualifications. He graduated from the U.S. Navy Academy in 1946 and was in the submarine service. He was entering the world of nuclear submarines when in 1953 his Dad passed and Carter left the Navy to go home to Plains, Georgia to take over the small family peanut farm. He built it into a successful enterprise, then served in the Georgia State Senate prior to becoming Governor of Georgia in 1963. His Navy service, his experience growing a successful agricultural enterprise, and his experience as a Governor seemed like good qualifications for the presidency to me, though I probably disagreed significantly with some of his political beliefs.

I was an American Soldier in West Germany for the entire presidential campaign of 1976. My military role was as a food inspector, and as such worked “on the economy” on many occasions. I remember arriving at an egg packing plant on a Wednesday morning in early November 1976 and the plant manager came out to the parking lot (very unusual) and asked “Have you had your peanuts today?” He then explained that the United States had elected a peanut farmer as President.

That was the second time in my lifetime that impacted me with the thought that when the United States of America speaks, the world listens! The first had been when I was an Exchange Student in Chile and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson II, had died unexpectedly in England. Numerous people I hardly knew there in Chile expressed condolences, concerns, and compassion to me.

We returned to the U.S. in 1978 and by the time Carter left office in January 1981 we had gas shortages – complete with gas rationed to purchases every other day and still had long lines at the pumps. Nevertheless, the Carter Presidency can be remembered for the Panama Canal Treaties, the Camp David Accords, and boycotting the 1980 Olympics. Carter also grew the government by adding the Departments of Education and Energy.

Carter was considered a “young president” although not as young as John. F. Kennedy upon inauguration. On their inauguration days, he was younger than the two presidents that preceded him (Nixon & Ford) and the two that followed him (Reagan & George H.W. Bush). An interesting piece of trivia: Carter was the first U.S. President born in a hospital.

Presidential candidate Reagan was asking about the Carter presidency when he asked at a 1980 presidential campaign debate “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Wasn’t the same question asked of the Democrats in the recent 2024 election cycle?

After his presidency, he returned to Plains, Georgia. He was known for his efforts for world peace, for safe (honorable) elections, and for building houses with Habitat for Humanity. He was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 2002 – a well-deserved recognition!

Politically, he was not as conservative as fellow Democrat President John F. Kennedy (“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”). But, his legacy is closer to the conservative Democrat Kennedy than the current crop of socialist Democrats such as Obama, both Clintons, Sanders, Biden, Harris and even Governor Evers.

Finally, is there any irony to the fact that the longest living President, Jimmy Carter, will be buried on January 9th -- the birthday of the only President to resign in disgrace from office, Richard Nixon?