When Jimmy came to town

Jimmy Carter, who was President from 1977-1981, passed away Dec. 29 at the age of 100. His funeral was held Thursday. He was the longest living former President in the history of the United States.

I had the honor of meeting President Carter when he spoke at the second William W. Siebens American Heritage Lecture at Buena Vista University in 1990. BVU President Keith Briscoe asked me to photograph the event for the university.

The 39th President came to Storm Lake to deliver the second lecture in the series, which debuted a year earlier with Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun.

Although Carter was accompanied to Storm Lake by a Secret Service detail, his protectors gave the affable Georgian plenty of space as he visited with attendees after his address to a full house in Schaller Memorial Chapel. At the reception in Siebens Forum, my wife Mary told the former President, “I voted for you twice!” Carter replied with his trademark toothy grin and blew her a kiss.

Iowa was instrumental in the Georgia peanut farmer’s ascension to the presidency. He was basically unknown outside Georgia, where he was serving one term as governor, until Carter won the Iowa Caucuses. That gave him the momentum to go on to win the nomination with his vice president, Senator Walter Mondale from Iowa’s northern neighbor, Minnesota.

I have been fortunate to have met five Presidents of the United States: Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I just missed meeting a sixth president, George W. Bush. Our family was visiting the White House just as he walked out and boarded Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn. We waved to him through the windows about 50 yards away.

Carter was a great yet humble man who had a challenging presidency, the victim of an Arab oil embargo that caused gas and oil shortages around the world; and the Iranian hostage crisis when 53 U.S. embassy workers were captured by Iranian revolutionaries and held for 444 days. They were finally released at noon on Jan. 20, 1981, the moment at which Ronald Reagan was sworn in as Carter’s successor.

Carter pledged that he would never lie to the American people, and he kept that promise, something almost no other president could claim (although George Washington famously proclaimed “I cannot tell a lie” when his father asked him who chopped down a cherry tree). Carter was also justifiably proud that during his four war-free years as commander-in-chief, American troops did not fire a single bullet in combat. He was committed to work towards world peace, and managed to get Iong-time enemies Israel and Egypt to agree to a Middle East peace plan that was hammered out at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

After his presidency, Carter could have lived a life of luxury that most former presidents enjoy. Instead, he and his wife Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in Atlanta that was dedicated to establishing world peace, promoting free elections, and ending human suffering in developing nations. And they were proud to return to their humble hometown of Plains, Ga., where they lived in the modest ranch home they built themselves. Instead of building a mansion for themselves, they built homes for others across the nation through their work with Habitat for Humanity.

Carter may not have been our greatest President, but he was certainly our greatest ex-President.

Just imagine: a President who didn’t lie.