Jimmy Carter

=== Education ===
Carter attended Plains High School from 1937 to 1941, graduating from the eleventh grade, since the school did not have a twelfth grade.<ref>{{cite web |title=Plains High School (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/plains-high-school.htm |access-date=July 17, 2022 |website=NPS |language=en |archive-date=July 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717143320/https://www.nps.gov/places/plains-high-school.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> By that time, Archery and Plains had been impoverished by the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], but the family benefited from [[New Deal]] farming subsidies, and Carter's father took a position as a community leader.<ref name="Hamilton-2005" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hayward |first=Steven F. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/836407503 |title=The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-president Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators, and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry. |date=2004 |publisher=Regnery Publishing |isbn=978-1-59698-278-9 |location=Washington DC |oclc=836407503 |quote=Earl may not have voted for FRD again, but he was not above receiving several New Deal agricultural subsidies as the Depression wore on}}</ref> Carter himself was a diligent student with a fondness for reading.<ref name="Hobkirk-2002">{{Cite book |last=Hobkirk |first=Lori |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/45024331 |title=James Earl Carter: our thirty-ninth president |date=2002 |publisher=Child's World, Inc |isbn=1-56766-873-9 |location=Chanhassen, Minn. |pages= |oclc=45024331}}</ref>{{Rp|page=8}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shafik |first=Aasef |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1033641928 |title=Global peace lovers |date=2008 |publisher=Authorhouse |isbn=9781438937809 |location= |pages=167 |oclc=1033641928}}</ref> A popular anecdote holds that he was passed over for [[valedictorian]] after he and his friends skipped school to venture downtown in a [[hot rod]]. Carter's truancy was mentioned in a local newspaper, although it is not clear he would have otherwise been valedictorian.<ref name="bourne-33-43">Bourne, pp. 33–43.</ref> As an adolescent, Carter played on the Plains High School basketball team, and also joined [[Future Farmers of America]], which helped him develop a lifelong interest in woodworking.<ref name="bourne-33-43" />

Carter had long dreamed of attending the [[United States Naval Academy]].<ref name="Hamilton-2005" /> In 1941, he started undergraduate coursework in engineering at [[Georgia Southwestern College]] in nearby Americus, Georgia.<ref name="Panton-2022">{{Cite book |last=Panton |first=Kenneth J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXR-EAAAQBAJ |title=Historical dictionary of the United States |date=2022 |isbn=978-1-5381-2419-2 |location=Lanham |pages= |oclc=1295808727 |access-date=August 9, 2023 |archive-date=November 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106231922/https://books.google.com/books?id=oXR-EAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Rp|page=99}} The next year, he transferred to the [[Georgia Institute of Technology]] in Atlanta, where civil rights icon [[Blake Van Leer]] was president.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jimmy Carter |url=https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/17/magazine-pages.aspx?sid=1481&gid=21&pgid=18394&cid=40232&ecid=40232&crid=0&calpgid=18390&calcid=40218 |website=www.gtalumni.org |language=en |access-date=August 21, 2023 |archive-date=November 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106231900/https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/17/magazine-pages.aspx?sid=1481&gid=21&pgid=18394&cid=40232&ecid=40232&crid=0&calpgid=18390&calcid=40218 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1943, he was admitted to the Naval Academy, from which he received a [[Bachelor of Science]] in 1946.<ref name="Hobkirk-2002" />{{Rp|page=38}} He was a good student but seen as reserved and quiet, in contrast to the academy's culture of aggressive hazing of freshmen.<ref name="Kaufman-2013" />{{Rp|page=62}} While at the academy, Carter fell in love with [[Rosalynn Carter|Rosalynn Smith]], a friend of his sister Ruth.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/835122766 |title=Inventing a voice: the rhetoric of American first ladies of the twentieth century |date=2004 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |others=Molly Meijer Wertheimer |isbn=0-7425-2970-3 |location=Lanham, Md |pages=343 |oclc=835122766}}</ref> The two wed shortly after his graduation in 1946,<ref>Bourne, pp. 44–55.</ref> and were married until her death on November 19, 2023.<ref name="Carter Center death">{{cite web |url=https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2023/statement-rosalynn-carter-111923.html |title=Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Passes Away at Age 96 |date=November 19, 2023 |publisher=[[Carter Center]] |access-date=November 19, 2023 |archive-date=November 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119201739/https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2023/statement-rosalynn-carter-111923.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He was a [[sprint football]] player for the [[Navy Midshipmen]].<ref name="hingston20160424">{{cite news |author=Hingston, Sandy |url=http://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/04/24/princeton-sprint-football-team/ |title=Why This Princeton Football Team Won't Be Suiting Up Next Season |work=Philadelphia |date=April 24, 2016 |access-date=November 5, 2016 |archive-date=November 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106124516/http://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/04/24/princeton-sprint-football-team/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Carter graduated 60th out of 821 midshipmen in the class of 1947{{efn|The Naval Academy's Class of 1947 graduated in 1946 as a result of World War II.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1996/06/05/the-class-of-the-naval-academy-has-50th-reunion/1631f2ba-b06e-4fe4-9968-1c39efb7d6bc/ |title=THE CLASS OF THE NAVAL ACADEMY HAS 50TH REUNION |date=June 5, 1996 |access-date=March 4, 2023 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |first=Amy |last=Argetsinger |author-link=Amy Argetsinger}}</ref>}} with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]].<ref>Alter, p. 59.</ref>