The School of Business Administration at Georgia Southwestern State University was pleased to have President Carter, Thirty-Ninth President of the United States of America, as the speaker for the third School of Business Administration Executive Lecture Series (SBELS) for the 2000-2001 academic year. 

Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.), thirty-ninth President of the United States, was born October 1, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia, and grew up in the nearby community of Archery.  His father, James Earl Carter, Sr., was a farmer and businessman; his mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse. He was educated in the Plains public schools, attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, and received a B.S. degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. On July 7, 1946, he married Rosalynn Smith. In 1962 he won election to the Georgia Senate. He became Georgia’s 76th governor on January 12, 1971. He was the Democratic National Committee campaign chairman for the 1974 congressional elections. On December 12, 1974, he announced his candidacy for President of the United States. He won his party’s nomination on the first ballot at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, and was elected President on November 2, 1976. 

Mr. Carter published an autobiography, Why Not the Best in 1975 (revised 1996), and A Government as Good as Its People in 1977 (revised 1996). Since his Presidency, he has published eleven books, several of which are now in revised editions: Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President, 1982, 1995; Negotiation: The Alternative to Hostility, 1984; The Blood of Abraham, 1985, 1993; Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life (written with Rosalynn Carter), 1987, 1995; An Outdoor Journal, 1988, 1994; Turning Point, A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age, 1992; Talking Peace: A Vision for the Next Generation, 1993, 1995; Always a Reckoning, 1994; The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer illustrated by Amy Carter, 1995; Living Faith, 1996, Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith, 1997, and An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood, 2001. President Carter has served on the board of directors, and he and Rosalynn are regular volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. He also teaches Sunday School and is a deacon in the Maranatha Baptist Church of Plains. For recreation, he enjoys fly-fishing, woodworking, jogging, cycling and tennis.