Top Photo: Midshipman James Earl Carter Jr. during World War II. Credit: Photographed at Merin Studios, date unknown. Photo archived at Naval History and Heritage Command Photo Archives Branch, photo no. L38-14.02.01.
The death of Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States of America, on December 29, 2024, is a tremendous loss for the American people. Yet his passing at the age of 100 also provides a vital opportunity for remembrance and reflection. President Carter lived a long and fulfilling life marked by faith, family, and public service.
Born in October 1924 in Plains, Georgia, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr. entered the US Naval Academy during World War II. He graduated with distinction in 1946, during a formative period for the United States as it assumed new responsibilities following the war's end. Ensign Carter initially was assigned to USS Wyoming. After two years of surface ship duty, Carter volunteered for submarine duty, serving aboard the submarine USS K-1 (SSK-1).
When the program to create nuclear-powered submarines began, Carter volunteered for that as well. He was interviewed and selected by Admiral Hyman Rickover. Carter served in the program until 1953, when his father passed away and Carter returned home to manage affairs in Plains, Georgia. In October 1953, then-Lieutenant Carter was honorably discharged and transferred to the Naval Reserve.
Lieutenant Jimmy Carter, USN, in the main control room of submarine USS K-1 (SSK-1) in 1952. Courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command.
Carter entered politics in his home state of Georgia. He served as a state legislator, emphasizing opposition to Jim Crow, before becoming governor in 1971. Surprising much of the American political establishment, Carter defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election.
Early in his administration, President Carter crafted domestic and foreign policies around reconciliation, human rights, and peace. He pardoned those who resisted military service in Vietnam, pushed for a more representative and diverse federal government, achieved a diplomatic breakthrough between Egypt and Israel with the Camp David agreement, won ratification for the Panama Canal treaties, and negotiated the SALT II nuclear-arms treaty with the Soviet Union.
Despite these accomplishments, the late 1970s were times of deep crisis. Carter faced an energy crisis, stagflation, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Such crises would have posed enormous challenges to any president.
President Jimmy Carter. Courtesy of the Bernard Gotfryd Photograph Collection (Library of Congress).
After he left office in 1981, Carter compiled a tremendous record as a public servant and advocate for transparent, representative government. The Carter Center he founded in 1982 strove to prevent possible conflicts between nations and mediate existing ones, while standing up for free and fair elections and the preservation of human rights. Throughout the four decades after the founding of the nonpartisan nonprofit organization, Carter traveled tirelessly, generating good will among leaders worldwide.
For his international efforts, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Americans of all political stripes admired his volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, his commitment to an open and inclusive Christianity, his humility and friendliness, and the loving marriage to his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter.
The National WWII Museum expresses the deepest gratitude for President Carter’s decades of public service and sends its condolences to the Carter family.