PLAINS, Ga. (WALB) - The 39th President of the United States Jimmy Carter, 100, is the longest-living president and the only president from Georgia.

WALB News 10 has compiled a look at Carter’s life. The information on Carter’s life is from The Carter Center, which was founded by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

Before the presidency

Carter was born on Oct. 1, 1924. He was born and raised in Plains to James Earl Carter, Sr., a peanut farmer and businessman, and Lillian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse.

Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946. He became a submariner in the U.S. Navy where he served both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and rose to the rank of lieutenant.

Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, is also from Plains and they got married on July 7, 1946.

When Carter’s father passed in 1953, he resigned from his naval commission and took over the Carter farms, a general-purpose seed and farm supply company, with Rosalynn.

He won a seat in the Georgia Senate in 1962. He later lost his first gubernatorial campaign in 1966 but later won his second campaign and became Georgia’s 76th governor on January 12, 1971.

The Carter administration

Carter announced his presidential candidacy on Dec. 12, 1974. He was elected president on Nov. 2, 1976, and served one term from 1977-1981.

During Carter’s presidency, he advocated for human rights around the world and oversaw foreign policy accomplishments including:

• Panama Canal treaties
• The Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel
• the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union
• the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China

Domestic achievements by the Carter administration include:

• A comprehensive energy program conducted by a new Department of Energy
• Deregulation in energy, transportation, communications, and finance
• Major educational programs under a new Department of Education
• Major environmental protection legislation like the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act

After the presidency

After the presidency, Carter wrote 32 books including “Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life,” a book written with Rosalynn, written in 1987 and revised in 1995; “Christmas in Plains: Memories,” written in 2001 and “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power,” written in 2014.

The Carter Center, a nonpartisan and nonprofit center, was founded in 1982. He also became the university distinguished professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

The center addresses national and international public policy issues. The center led international efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease, which is poised to be the second human disease to be eradicated in history.

Carter and Rosalynn volunteered one week per year for Habitat for Humanity until 2020. Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit that helps people in need in the U.S. and around the world by renovating and building homes.

Carter taught Sunday school at the Maranatha Baptist Church of Plains.

In December 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The committee awarded the prize to Carter “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

Copyright 2023 WALB. All rights reserved.