DENVER — Former president Jimmy Carter’s commitment to serving people outside of the Oval Office may be his true legacy as the world remembers him following his passing Sunday at 100 years old.
Colorado is among the many places touched by that commitment across several decades.
Denver7 was able to dig up photos dating back to 1976 – the year before he became president – of a smiling Carter in Denver, where he would speak at the national conference for Catholic Charities.
In 1980, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, committed themselves to Habitat for Humanity.
“It is a great feeling to make such a difference with your own hands,” the president wrote. “Habitat [for Humanity] is an idea that is incredibly timely and urgently needed in many areas of our own country and in much of the rest of the world.”
In 2013, that urgent need was felt in Denver's Globeville neighborhood. Carter had just turned 90. Still, there he was working side by side with Coloradans at a construction site, building 11 homes and repairing 50 more.
“He was one of the first ones out there. He got to work,” said Heather Lafferty, the former CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver. “There's no slowing him down, and, in fact, you don't want to slow down when you work alongside him because if you even just take a moment break, he'll give you that look and say, ‘Do you need another job? Do you need something else to do?’”
- VIDEO: Remembering Jimmy Carter | 39th president's legacy of service felt in Colorado
Lafferty, who spent more than two decades of service with Habitat before leaving the organization last year, called Carter a masterful carpenter and a genuine and true leader.
“He inspires,” she said. “His work ethic, his commitment, his dedication to habitat [are] an inspiration. To have the opportunity to work alongside him [is] one of the highlights of my career, of my life.”
Habitat teams were gathered for a conference when the unthinkable happened on September 11, 2001. Lafferty said Carter showed in that moment what it meant to be presidential – that he was right there with just the right words.
“His call for us to unify to continue to love one another, to continue to be compassionate with one another, to listen to one another and to be present for one another… I just remember listening to him and thinking, ‘There is nobody I would rather listen to right now than President Carter,” Lafferty said.
Former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, who was serving as governor when Carter was elected president in 1976, remembered the former president as a “studious” man. The two got to know each other shortly after Carter took office, when the president proposed cuts to water projects throughout the West, including in Colorado.
“He went through a lot of our water projects and said, ‘These don't make any economic sense,’” Lamm said. “Now, he might have been right. But no Colorado governor can just give up their water projects.”
They were able to come to a compromise because there was so much more on the country's mind in the 70s: long lines at the gas station, a stock market in the tank, high unemployment and a country still recovering from a political scandal called Watergate.
Even though Colorado voted with Gerald Ford in 1976, Lamm felt Carter's presidency was what the country needed.
“I think it's because he was after Watergate, [which] was such a national trauma and you just could see him on television, you could see him in a speech, you could meet him in person, you knew that was real people,” he said. “You might say, ‘I disagree with him on this or that, I'm a Republican and I don't really share his politics,’ but nobody could deny that he was this wonderful human being.”
Carter both walked the walk and talked the talk. In 2014, Carter told an interviewer he wanted to be remembered “as someone who was a champion of peace and human rights.”
“Your life is your message, as Gandhi used to say,” Lamm said. “And Jimmy Carter, his life was his message.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis shared the following statement on Carter's passing:
“Today I join my fellow Americans to mourn the passing of Former President Jimmy Carter at age 100. A Naval Officer and peanut farmer turned Governor and President, Jimmy Carter advanced the American ideals we cherish most; human rights, international cooperation, compassion, and treating every American equally. I express my deep condolences to the Carter family during this difficult time and share my gratitude for Former President Carter’s leadership, service, and deep dedication to our strong and resilient nation during his time in office and beyond."
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