Jimmy Carter

James Earl Carter Jr., also known as Jimmy Carter, was born in Plains, Georgia, in 1924. He was raised in a local small village of Archery and went to a public high school in Plains. Carter's parents were James Earl Carter Sr., a businessman and farmer, and Lillian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse. After graduating from high school, Carter attended Georgia Institute of Technology and later transferred to Southwestern College in Georgia, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1946. Carter then joined the United States Naval Academy and served as a submariner in the Pacific and Atlantic fleets, rising to the rank of lieutenant. He was designated for the nuclear submarine program by Admiral Hyman Rickover and studied nuclear physics and reactor technology at Union College in New York. During this time, Carter was also a senior officer for the second nuclear submarine Seawolf and was in charge of pre-commissioning the crew.

Jimmy Carter served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Prior to his presidency, he served as a Georgia State Senator and as the 76th Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. As President, Carter created two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price decontrol, and new technology, which reduced foreign oil imports by 50% from 1977 to 1982. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). He also negotiated a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979 and emphasized human rights during his presidency. However, his return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama was criticized, and his final year in office was marked by several major crises, including the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in Iran and holding of hostages by Iranian students, a failed rescue attempt of the hostages, serious fuel shortages, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

After leaving office, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, founded The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization that prevents and resolves conflicts, enhances freedom and democracy, and improves health around the world. Carter has also written numerous books, including Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, An Hour Before Daylight, and Our Endangered Values, for which he received a "Best Spoken Word" Grammy Award for his recording. He remains an particularly vocal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As of 2008, Carter is the second-oldest living former president, three months and 19 days younger than George H.W. Bush.