Jimmy Carter(1924–2024)

James Earl Carter Jr. was born at Plains, Georgia, on 1 October 1924. He trained at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and served as a submarine officer in the early nuclear navy under Admiral Rickover before returning home to run the family farm. He rose through Georgia state politics to the governorship and in 1976 was elected President of the United States.

The signal achievement of his presidency was the Camp David Accords of 1978, the framework he personally brokered over thirteen days between Egypt and Israel that produced their peace treaty the following year and has held ever since. He concluded the Panama Canal treaties, established the Departments of Energy and of Education, and made human rights a stated pillar of American foreign policy.

After leaving office he founded the Carter Center in 1982, through which he monitored elections across the world and led a global health campaign that has all but eradicated Guinea-worm disease. For decades he gave his hands to Habitat for Humanity, building houses for those who had none.

In 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of work for peace, democracy and human development. He lived to one hundred years of age, the longest-lived president in American history, and sustained a partnership with his wife Rosalynn that lasted seventy-seven years.

The Carter name is an old occupational surname for the man who drove the carts, the mover of goods along the road. James Earl Carter carried it from a Georgia farm to the presidency and then, for forty years more, to the service of the poor and the sick across the world.