Emory Center for Ethics

Saying Goodbye to President Carter

Aristotle stated that one cannot say a person has led a good life until after the individual’s death. Today one unreservedly can say that about the late James Earl (Jimmy) Carter Jr. In a life of challenges, defeats, and vicissitudes Carter rose above them.  Carter’s commitment to serving humanity and striving to end some of the most virulent scourges of the impoverished and forgotten epitomizes what it meant to be a servant leader.  His prestige as a former president gave him access to the pinnacles of power, but rather than seeking fame and wealth, Carter sought to ease the plight of the forgotten. From those experiencing homelessness to those facing the threat of painful and debilitating diseases like Guinea Worm and river blindness, Carter worked with people.  His prestige gave him access, but his humility gave him the willingness to act, to serve, and to listen. Driven by faith, a sense of duty, and love of family, Jimmy Carter died as an exemplar for what a willingness to serve can accomplish, when one puts others above one’s self.

He will be missed. It is with great pleasure and humility that the Emory Center for Ethics stops to honor the late President James Earl (Jimmy) Carter, an individual who represented the highest standards of ethics and service and about whom one honestly can say, as did Carter’s vice-president Walter Mondale, “We told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace.”  May his memory and life be a legacy for the future.

Edward L. Queen, PhD, JD