Had James Earl Carter not been President, we’d still be reading today that a remarkable American has become a centenarian.
This young man from tiny Plains, Georgia aspired to stretch
out into the world while staying rooted in cotton and peanut country. 1n 1942, he
appealed to Georgia Congressman Stephen Pace for appointment to The US Naval
Academy (which Ann and I visited last year with my niece and nephew and their spouses)
and was graduated with distinction in 1946. After two years on surface ships,
he applied for submarine duty, serving as electronics officer dealing with a
new SONAR array development. He rose to become engineering officer, and eventually Exec
Officer of SSK-1, the Barracuda.
Later, when nuclear sub development was
undertaken, Carter sought entry, was interviewed and selected by then-captain
Hymen Rickover, and was assigned to the Naval Reactor Branch of the Atomic
Energy Commission to assist “in the design and development of nuclear
propulsion plants for naval vessels.” (Carter joined in November of ’52; my Dad
had left the AEC that previous June.)
Carter was slated to become engineering officer on the
Seawolf, one of the first nuclear subs. But in summer of ’53, his father died,
leaving a struggling peanut farm. Lieutenant Jimmy Carter resigned to attend to
family affairs and returned to Plains. In ’46, he and Rosalynn Smith, another
Plains born and bred, had married. Now in civilian lives, Jimmy studied
agronomy and Rosalynn studied finance and accounting; he grew and harvested,
she managed the books. It was a partnership that lasted.
Jimmy and Rosalynn became stalwarts of the local Baptist
Church, where Jimmy taught Sunday School over decades, well into the 21stC.
Along the way, he
· `` Revitalized his family peanut business.
· `` Served as chair of the Sumpter County school
board.
· `` Gradually became a committed civil rights
activist and an anti-segregationist Democrat.
· `` Was elected to the Georgia Senate after successfully
challenging a fraudulent election and winning the court-ordered re-election.
· `` Ran for and became Governor of Georgia,
defeating Republican and Democratic segregationists.
· `` As Governor Carter, he re-designed state
government, consolidating over 300 separate departments into 22, created youth
development programs, education programs for the incarcerated, and equalized state support for education between rural and urban areas.
· `` Helped found, fund and promote Habitat for
Humanity.
· `` Fought for just and fair democratic elections elsewhere
and formed a process for monitoring and reporting on foreign elections,
especially in Africa and South and Central America.
· `` Wrote twenty-two books, one jointly with Rosalynn
Carter (about which both said with a laugh that they’d never make that mistake
again.)
Of course, Jimmy Carter did become our 39th President, a presidency buffeted by Iranian revolutionary hostage-takers, OPEC’s embargo-inflation, born-again Christian idealism, and implacable Republican, real-politik hostility. (Barbara and I took our eldest, Frank, to Washington and stood on the white House lawn to see Carter greet Prime Minister Morarji Desai.)
And, as an ex-President, Carter made the most of
opportunities to play an elder statesman role on the world stage.
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