WORLD
Former US President Jimmy Carter, humanitarian and Nobel Prize winner, dies at 100
- IBJ Bureau
- Dec 31, 2024
Former US President Jimmy Carter has died, aged 100, the centre he founded has confirmed.
The former peanut farmer lived longer than any president in history and celebrated his 100th birthday in October 2024.
The Carter Center, which advocates for democracy and human rights around the world, said that he died at his home in Plains, Georgia.
Mr Carter is survived by his four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. His wife, Rosalynn, who he was married to for 77 years, died in November 2023.
Mr Carter, belonging to the Democratic Party, was a farmer, a lieutenant in the US navy and governor of Georgia before becoming the president of the USA. He served as the US president from 1977 to 1981, a period beset by economic and diplomatic crises.
Mr Carter’s presidency will be remembered for his struggles in dealing with acute economic problems and several foreign policy challenges, including the Iran hostage crisis, which ended with the deaths of eight Americans.
There was, however, a notable foreign policy triumph in the Middle East when he helped broker an accord between Egypt and Israel, signed at Camp David in the US in 1978.
After leaving the White House, he became the first and only president to return full-time to the house he lived in before politics – a humble, two-bedroom, ranch-style home.
He chose not to pursue the lucrative after-dinner speeches and publishing deals awaiting most former presidents, telling The Washington Post in 2018 that he never really wanted to be rich.
Instead, he spent his remaining years trying to address global problems of inequality and disease.
He also teamed up with Nelson Mandela to found The Elders, a group of global leaders who committed themselves to work on peace and human rights.
In accepting his Nobel Prize in 2002 – only the third US president to receive it – he said: “The most serious and universal problem is the growing chasm between the richest and the poorest people on earth.”
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