Over 38 years, Emory students quizzed and grew to love Jimmy Carter

For generations of Emory University students, Jimmy Carter was more than just the nation’s 39th president.

He was their beloved professor.

Carter drew packed crowds to his annual town halls where he inspired students with his candor, quips and wisdom.

For 38 consecutive years, starting in 1982, Carter was the keynote speaker at an event that became a cherished tradition for firstyear students. His made his last appearance in 2020. Emory estimates about 50,000 students attended the Carter Town Hall over the decades. Held early in the first semester, the freewheeling discussions left a lasting impression.

“This was someone who my whole life had been larger than life for me,” said Jessica CorbittDominguez, a 1995 Emory graduate, who is now the spokeswoman for Fulton County government.

She grew up in a working-class family with deep Georgia roots who were immensely proud that Carter hailed from their home state.

“That town hall really made this huge impression on me,” she said. “The conversation became so much bigger and about solving these huge world problems.”

After graduating from high school, Carter studied at Georgia Southwestern College, now called Georgia Southwestern State University, and transferred a year later to Georgia Tech to study mathematics for a year in order to qualify for the U.S. Naval Academy.

But some of Carter’s strongest educational ties were with Emory, Georgia’s largest private university. Alumni fondly recall their interactions with Carter, 98, who entered home hospice care last month.

His connection grew out of conversations he had with the school after losing the 1980 election. He partnered with the university to create the Carter Center, received the title of distinguished professor and regularly lectured in religion, politics or other courses.

He met monthly for lunch with a small, rotating group of faculty members and had frequent breakfasts with Emory’s then-President James T. Laney and his successors.

“There was, I think, first of all a sense of pride that this was the only university in the country that had a former president of the United States actually on the faculty, and not in a symbolic way,” said Gary Hauk, a retired Emory administrator and university historian. “He valued the academic life, but he valued it most when academics got translated into action that benefited the world.”

Carter told students they could ask him anything.

In 1998, he had avoided addressing the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal — until that year’s town hall. He told the audience he did not believe Clinton had been truthful to a grand jury.

“He basically found it ethically problematic …,” recalled Julie Clements Smith, a 2002 Emory graduate.

Carter abided by his pledge to answer all questions, even the uncomfortable ones. His remarks sparked national headlines.

“He sort of lived out in these town hall meetings what he swore to do as president, which was to tell the truth,” Hauk said.

And that’s how it went for decades: Moments of levity mixed with poignant reflections and political insights.

During a town hall a few days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Carter offered comfort: “Our nation will survive, as it always has.”