Jimmy Carter Remembered as a ‘Genuine Hero’

Carter took office in 1977 when the country still was reeling from a deep mistrust of public institutions fueled by the Watergate scandal, ongoing fallout from the Vietnam War, the threat of oil boycotts by Middle Eastern states and the ceaseless threat of nuclear war.

Working toward peace in the Middle East peace is perhaps his biggest achievement while in the White House, added Bruce Jentleson, a professor of public policy and political science at Duke who was a senior adviser at the State Department from 2009-2011.

“While his foreign policy was often criticized at the time, the 1979 Camp David Egypt-Israel peace treaty in which President Carter played a crucial role is one of the few achievements to stand the Middle East's test of time,” Jentleson said.

As a politician, Carter can be considered “the last of our pre-polarization presidents,” said Pope “Mac” McCorkle, a professor of the practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy and former Democratic consultant.

“He was elected in 1976 as a Democrat with a strong base of support in the South, particularly among white Protestant evangelicals. That support was due to his well-deserved reputation as an upstanding Christian Southern gentleman,” McCorkle said.

“But by 1980 and the rise of Ronald Reagan's ideological Hollywood politics, Carter and his pragmatic down-home style was out of step with the growing polarized mood of too many American voters.”

Faculty agreed that Carter’s greatest legacy is the work he did after leaving office.

“Only after his presidency were his intellect, integrity, and commitment fully able to be employed in the Carter Center to eradicate disease, improve sanitation, increase crop production and, overall, improve the lives of so many thousands, especially in the poorest regions of the world,” Aldrich says. “And his commitment to democracy, to the integrity of elections, and even to working with Chinese and American leaders to develop a competitive rural village election program in China.”

Added Jentleson: “Jimmy Carter invented the modern post-presidency as an opportunity to play a continuing and crucial role in the world and at home. For Carter, it was his Carter Center monitoring for free and fair elections in one country after another, working with public health experts to fight global diseases like guinea worm, and getting out there with his carpenter's belt building houses with Habitat for Humanity.”

“He set a precedent for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama to pursue meaningful post-presidencies each in his own way.”

“Jimmy Carter invented the modern post-presidency as an opportunity to play a continuing and crucial role in the world and at home.”

Bruce Jentleson

Deondra Rose, an associate professor of public policy, political science and history at the Sanford School, remembers Carter’s ubiquitous presence while she lived in Georgia.

“I spent many years living in Georgia where it was impossible to miss President Carter’s impact. It seemed as though there were -- at most -- three degrees of separation from any person and President and Mrs. Carter,” said Rose, who formerly directed Polis: Center for Politics at Duke.

“You could always find someone who would readily recount the time they met President Carter when they were volunteering at a Habitat for Humanity house build or about the time that they saw the former president during a trip to his church in Plains where he taught Sunday School faithfully each week.”

“Without fail, these storytellers described their brushes with the president with wide-eyed reverence and their accounts spoke to the kind and generous person that he was. They also underscored a type of sincerity and authenticity that I’ve found to be hallmarks of the most awe-inspiring leaders. President Carter was one-of-a-kind, and his legacy will inspire future leaders for generations to come.”

“Jimmy Carter,” Aldrich said, “was a man of honor, faith, and decency who became a genuine hero.”