The editorial staff of the Concordiensis mourns the loss of former Union student and 39th US President Jimmy Carter. Carter took one non-credit course at Union in fall of 1953 and served as President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Carter is the second US president to be enrolled at the college, after President Chester A. Arthur in the class of 1848.
In 1953, the college contracted with the US Navy to provide instruction in basic nuclear theory for crews working at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna. Then Lieutenant Jimmy Carter enrolled in a non-credit course on basic nuclear science and reactor engineering. Carter lived in quarter seven of the US Army Rotterdam Housing Area in Rotterdam.
On April 2nd, 1976, the then-presidential nominee frontrunner spoke in Memorial Chapel. As he returned to campus, Carter remarked that it was “just as beautiful as I remembered it from my old days.” Once Carter won the presidency, Union President Thomas N. Bonner invited Carter to be the class of 1977’s commencement speaker. However, Carter was ultimately unable to speak at the commencement.
As president, Carter founded the US Departments of Education and Energy, brokered the Camp David Accords and handled the Iranian Revolution and Iran hostage crisis, the ladder of which led to him losing reelection. After he left the white house, Carter was a key figure in the foundation of Habitat for Humanity, an affordable housing nonprofit, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his human rights advocacy work.
The editorial staff of the Concordiensis honors Carter’s legacy and service. Carter was an example of Union students being true to their name, in his case serving the American people as president and through his philanthropic work.
