Jimmy Carter Dies at 100: America's Longest-Lived President

Jimmy Carter died in December 2024 in Plains, Georgia, one hundred years old. He was, at his death, the oldest person ever to have served as U.S. President. He was also the president with the longest post-presidential career: forty-three years of building Habitat for Humanity houses, monitoring elections in conflict zones, negotiating with North Korea on his own initiative, and eradicating Guinea worm disease from Africa. He lost reelection in 1980 in a landslide. He spent the next four decades building what some historians call the most consequential post-presidency in American history. James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, the first president born in a hospital. He graduated from the Naval Academy, served as a nuclear submarine officer under Admiral Hyman Rickover, and returned to Georgia to run the family peanut farm after his father's death. He was elected governor in 1970 and won the presidency in 1976 as a Washington outsider in the aftermath of Watergate and Vietnam. His presidency was marked by genuine achievements, including the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, the Panama Canal treaties, and the establishment of the Department of Energy and Department of Education. But the Iran hostage crisis, stagflation, and the energy crisis overwhelmed his administration, and Ronald Reagan defeated him in a 49-state landslide in 1980. His post-presidency redefined the role. Through the Carter Center, founded in 1982, he monitored over 100 elections in 39 countries, mediated conflicts in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Haiti, and led the campaign that reduced Guinea worm disease from 3.5 million cases in 1986 to fewer than 15 cases by 2024. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He built houses with Habitat for Humanity into his 90s. He taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains almost every week until his health declined.