RIP Jimmy Carter

We celebrate an extraordinary life.

One day in 1982 I boarded a Delta DC-9 in Atlanta and headed for my client radio station in Washington, D.C. (Kids, a radio station is like Spotify, only it is local, and plays more commercials than songs—ask your nana for a fuller description of this lovely antiquity.) It was back in the day when frequent fliers could reasonably expect to be upgraded to First Class most of the time, so I was a little annoyed when the gate agent told me the front cabin was full. When I boarded, I saw that former president Jimmy Carter, his aides, and his Secret Service detail, were taking up most of the front. Cool, I thought, rank has its privileges.

Once we were straight and level at cruising altitude, and even before the flight attendants started the beverage service, President Carter began to make his way through the coach cabin, stopping to shake every hand and hear every story. It took the entire flight. He never sat down, gamely dodging serving carts, and answering a million questions about the world, government, and Plains, Georgia, where he had retired after losing to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Jimmy Carter taught a master class in post presidential behavior. Before Carter, presidents simply faded away, their role played, they sought peace and quiet, and who could blame them. It’s the highest-stakes, 24/7/365 job there is. The nation’s—and often the world’s—troubles rest on the shoulders of the Leader of the Free World.

Richard Nixon had slunk off in disgrace to San Clemente. Jerry Ford retired to Palm Springs where his wife became the active, civically-engaged one with her at-the-time unconventional start-up, the Betty Ford Center, not the first drug and alcohol rehab facility, but certainly the highest profile one. Both Presidents Eisenhower and Truman retired quietly. Of course FDR and JFK died in office. While Ronald Reagan had dementia and was no longer a public person, his wife, Nancy, remained engaged civically and charitably.

Of our post-Carter ex’s only George W. Bush (painter) and Donald Trump (pot-stirrer) failed to civically engage. The Obamas write and lecture on human rights. Bush’s dad, George Herbert Walker Bush, joined forces with his successor, Bill Clinton. They globe-trotted on behalf of the hungry and downtrodden, ultimately leading to the Clinton Global Initiative which still raises funds and deploys assets in the emerging world.

The quiet life in Plains awaited the Carters, but it would be decades before they slowed down to enjoy it. In September of 1984, Jimmy and his always-by-his-side wife, Rosalyn, founded the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Project, which ultimately became the nonprofit home-builder, Habitat for Humanity. Both my wife, Laura, and my daughter, Alison, stood shoulder to shoulder with them and built houses. So inspiring were they, that Alison decided to forego Spring Break in Miami for a muddy Mexican home-building trip. Laura worked for the big media concern there, Cox Enterprises, whose WSB-TV (kids, a TV station is like Netflix, only with more commercials and a newsroom that thrives on car-crashes, shootings, and crimes against the elderly). Anyway, Cox partnered with Habitat, making it a cause célébre. Building homes with Habitat was a bucket list thing to do if you lived in Atlanta.

The Carters also changed the nature of presidential libraries. Right after his presidency, they partnered with Emory University to create The Carter Center. Not just the traditional field trip stop for school children, The Carter Center was engaged in election monitoring worldwide. Go to most any African nation and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find the residents afford near God-like stature to Jimmy Carter.

Prior to 1986, Guinea Worm infected about 300,000 people a year in Africa and Asia. In that year, The Carter Center partnered with the Centers for Disease Control, and at this writing have virtually eradicated Guinea Worm, a curable, but devastating disease when left untreated.

In 2010, I started working with the nonprofit government watchdog, Common Cause, and its Georgia affiliate. That’s where I met Carter grandson, Jason, who was a state senator at the time. Jason Carter is a partner at a leading Atlanta law firm co-founded by one of the lions of the civil rights movement, Emet Bondurant, who was on our board. Jason had an easy way about him, and it seemed for a time that he might plausibly become president one day, but after a failed run for governor in Georgia, he set his political aspirations aside because his grandfather needed him. In November of 2015, Jason Carter became the chairman on the board of the Carter Center, ensuring it would remain in steady hands for the next generation. Through Jason, and the tireless work of everyone at The Carter Center, their work on democratic elections and healthcare on a massive scale continues.

Now, that’s quite a legacy.

©2025 Jon Sinton