Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to peace in the Middle East and easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula in the 1990s, died Sunday, the Carter Center said. He was 100.
Carter, the longest-living former U.S. president in history, who entered hospice care nearly two years ago, died peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family, according to the center.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights and unselfish love,” Chip Carter, the former president’s son, said in a statement.
A naval lieutenant-turned-politician, Carter was inaugurated after serving as governor of the state of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and a state senator in the 1960s. Before entering politics, he ran his family’s peanut farm.
As Democrat U.S. president from 1977 to 1981, Carter worked to help Israel and Egypt improve relations through the so-called Camp David agreement in 1978.
The United States switched its diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979 under the Carter administration.
Carter the same year attended a summit of seven industrialized nations in Tokyo that included the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, West Germany and Italy.
Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election after he came under fire over the handling of the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Iran that started the previous year as well as the slumping economy.
He established the Carter Center in Atlanta, a nongovernmental organization focused on advancing human rights, in 1982 with Emory University.
In 1994, Carter succeeded in easing tensions with North Korea, which was facing the threat of sanctions over its nuclear program, by visiting Pyongyang and holding talks with the country’s then President Kim Il Sung.
The United States and North Korea subsequently reached the Agreed Framework in which Pyongyang promised to freeze a nuclear plant that could produce weapons-grade plutonium in return for the procurement of two light-water nuclear plants and energy aid.
Hours after Carter’s death was announced, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that he “stands as a model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose, a life of principle, of faith and humility. His life dedicated to others.”
Biden labeled the 39th president a man of “decency” several times when addressing the media.
He later issued a proclamation on Carter’s death, designating Jan. 9 as a national day of mourning. He also directed U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff for 30 days from Sunday on all public buildings and grounds, naval vessels and at military posts, as well as U.S. facilities abroad.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, meanwhile, said on his Truth Social platform, “While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for.”
“He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect,” said Trump, who will return to the White House on Jan. 20 for a nonconsecutive second term.