Remembering Jimmy Carter: Mid-Ohio Valley Democrats discuss Carter’s legacy

Chris Mapes, from Iowa, signs a condolence book for former President Jimmy Carter who died on Sunday, in the lobby of the The Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. (Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP)
PARKERSBURG — Former President Jimmy Carter’s public service after leaving office will be the legacy for which he is best known after his passing Sunday at the age of 100, several prominent local Democrats said.
“I think that his long-term legacy is that he cared about things that seemed impossible to cure,” local attorney Walt Auvil said. “Disease, democracy in third-world nations and homeless here.
“They haven’t been cured, but he gave a good whack at them,” Auvil said.
Carter was the 39th president of the United States from 1977-1981. After he left office, Carter advocated, through the Carter Center, regarding public health, human rights and democracy around the world. He and his late wife, Rosalyn, were active in Habitat for Humanity and often worked on homes.
The people he helped could never help him, either politically or financially, Auvil said.
“What better legacy could you have to do things for other people,” he said.
“What other president has accomplished so much after his term,” said Jeff Fox, chairman of the Wood County Democratic Party. “I can think of no one.”
Carter’s passing is not so much a mourning of his death, Fox said. “It’s more so a celebration of his life’s legacy for all humanity.”
His years after leaving office doesn’t diminish what he did while president, Fox said. Carter was instrumental in the Camp David Accords that brought peace between Egypt and Israel and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
“In a lot of ways I look at Carter as the last president who was not bought or sold by special or corporate interests,” Fox said.
Former Belpre Mayor Mike Lorentz said Carter is the only former president who has done more for the country after leaving office through his works as a statesman promoting democracy around the world, building houses for Habitat For Humanity and more.
“He will always have my high regard,” Lorentz said. “It seems like many of the presidents I remember during my lifetime left office as millionaires and we never heard from them again.
“Jimmy Carter continued a life of service long after her term as president was over. You really do have to admire that.”
There have been a lot of stories and coverage of Carter helping to build houses for Habitat. Lorentz said he has known some people who are in their 90s making contributions to their churches and communities, like Carter did.
Wood County Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said he has a couple of photos in his family’s restaurant of Carter and Jay Rockefeller, the former West Virginia governor and senator, and others from the state.
Colombo was a Democrat for a number of years before switching to the Republican Party.
He found Carter to be “an extremely intelligent human being.”
Colombo said Carter was able to help a lot of people after leaving the presidency, including helping to build many houses for Habitat For Humanity for many people who needed them, getting out there and doing the work himself with his own hands.
“That is huge,” Colombo said. “He was a great person.”
Carter and his wife were among the most famous volunteers for Habitat for Humanity in the past 35 years, according to Robin Stewart, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of the Mid-Ohio Valley.
“We mourn the passing of President Carter, and recognize his great humanitarian efforts on behalf of those whose lives are changed by a decent, affordable home,” Stewart said.
“Post-presidency, he and his wife dedicated their lives and notoriety to the Habitat for Humanity mission. Several people in our Valley had the opportunity to participate in his Carter Work Projects, or to simply learn from him in the Sunday School classes he taught for many years at his home church in Georgia,” she said. “We will be forever grateful for President Carter’s commitment to his faith.”
Willa O’Neill, Chairperson of the Washington County Democratic Party, said many expected this time would come since Carter entered hospice care last year as well as the passing of his wife.
Carter did make it a goal to be able to vote for Kamala Harris in the last presidential election which he was able to do.
“I am glad he was able to do that,” she said.
O’Neill said she was a young woman when Carter was elected.
“I remember he just brought a lot of hope to the office during a time when there had been real challenges to our government,” she said. “With the passing of President Jimmy Carter we lost a man who was the epitome of a true public servant.
“He dedicated his entire life to serving the public from his time in the Navy to being elected governor of Georgia and then the President of the United States.”
Carter’s time in the presidency was filled with a lot of challenges and, as a result, he was a one-term president.
“I think in retrospect, a lot of people have realized a lot of the good he did as president,” O’Neill said. “I think more so he has been a real example of a public servant after leaving the presidency.”
She pointed out his work as an ambassador of peace, building homes for Habitat for Humanity, helping to eradicate diseases around the world and more. She said the Carters’ love story was “a story for the ages.”
“I think he is just a remarkable man,” she said. “I don’t think we will see a man of his remarkable abilities again in our lifetime.”
Jess Mancini and Brett Dunlap can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com and bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com.