Carter now longest-living US president

Former President Jimmy Carter on Friday became the longest-living president in U.S. history, another milestone as he continues a rich post-presidential life that has spanned nearly four decades.

On Friday, Carter, the nation’s 39th president, reached the age of 94 years and 172 days, making him a day older than former President George H.W. Bush was when he died in November.

The record comes more than three years after Carter announced he would receive treatment for cancer in his brain.

“I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” Carter said in August 2015; four months later, he said he was cancer free.

In a statement Friday, a spokeswoman for the Carter Center — the Atlanta-based nonprofit that Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, founded in 1982 — said the former president has been taking fewer long trips than he used to. But Deanna Congileo said Carter “continues to remain engaged in the causes and activities that have marked his post-presidency.”

“He provides vision and assistance for Carter Center programs in global peace and health, participates in Habitat for Humanity builds one week a year, delivers Sunday school lessons in his hometown, Plains, Georgia, teaches at Emory University and much more,” Congileo said.

“He and Mrs. Carter take walks, and they have followed a healthy diet for a lifetime. ‘Both President and Mrs. Carter are determined to use their influence for as long as they can to make the world a better place. Their tireless resolve and heart have helped to improve life for millions of the world’s poorest people.”

Carter, who left the White House in 1981, also has the record for the longest postpresidency in U.S. history. Carter