It has been said many times, but it’s important to remember that Jimmy Carter’s most important and impactful years as a leader in the United States came after he left the presidency in 1981. That’s more than four decades, starting in his late 50s, during which President Carter showed the world by example what a public servant could be, what a public servant should be, and how a person’s ideas can grow and change as time brings more clarity to the true tenets of progress.
In 2019, President Carter spoke at a church service about his 2015 cancer diagnosis, saying, “I said a prayer about it. I didn’t ask God to let me live, I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death.” His presence among us has been a blessing, and his memory will remain one long after he has shed this mortal coil.
