The Legacy of President Jimmy Carter

The Former President Was a Strong Supporter of Shriners Children’s

Members of the Shriners Children’s and Shriners International communities are mourning the loss of President Jimmy Carter, who passed away Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, at 100. He was the oldest living president of all time.

President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were eager and caring supporters of Shriners Children’s and our mission of providing life-changing medical care. Over the years, their personal support and that of the Carter Center helped our healthcare system serve countless children around the world.

In 2015, the former president, who was known for being open with his health status, announced that he had metastatic melanoma and that it had spread to his brain. At the time, it was thought he had just weeks to live. A then-new treatment, a form of immunotherapy, is credited with extending his life.

Last year, he announced that he would forgo any more potentially life-saving treatment and enter hospice at home, a decision that is usually made only by people with weeks to live. But, once again, President Carter defied the expectations.

Writing in the New York Times, critical care physician Daniela Lamas, M.D., said President Carter gave a boost to hospice care. She said his sharing of the fact that he was in hospice in his final months was “a fitting final gift of candor from a former president to an American public that has long been uncomfortable with our own mortality.”

In 2016 the Carters appeared in a Valentine’s-themed public service announcement for the healthcare system, saying our greatest legacy is “what we can do to help the next generation” and encouraging viewers to refer children who could benefit from Shriners Children’s care. President Carter said then, “We have been following the philanthropic efforts of Shriners Hospitals for many years, and we look forward to helping people understand they are a resource available when seeking medical care for their children."

Gary Bergenske, former head of the fraternity and former CEO of Shriners Children’s, recalled that President Carter made the PSA because of his passionate belief in the mission. “He donated his time and image to do this for Shriners Children’s out of the goodness of his heart,” Bergenske said. “He did that because he wanted to help the children we take care of.”

Later the same year, members of the Carter Center traveled with a Shriners Children’s medical team for an outreach clinic at St. Boniface hospital in Haiti. The Carter Center helped organize the medical mission, working directly with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Disabilities of the Government of Haiti for approval.

President Carter began working with Shriners Children’s to expand access to medical care for children around the world, and he was named Honorary Ambassador of Hasan Shriners at a ceremony in Albany, Georgia, in 2014. The honor was particularly meaningful, President Carter said, because his father was a Mason and a Shriner.

In 2018, President Carter and the Carter Center assisted Shriners Children’s in transporting children who were critically injured in a volcanic eruption in Guatemala, helping to arrange military transport – the U.S. Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster III aircraft – and military medical teams to help transfer the children to our Galveston hospital.

Both the healthcare system and the fraternity honored President Carter in 2018. Shriners Children’s bestowed the Humanitarian Award in recognition of his service on behalf of our mission and patients. The award was presented by that year’s Imperial Potentate, Imperial Sir Bergenske, who also presented President Carter with one of the fraternity’s most special honors, the Imperial Potentate’s Medallion.

President Carter once said, “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something... My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”

Shriners Children’s and Shriners International are proud to have been singled out and supported by President Carter, and deeply appreciate his efforts to help the world’s children have access to the life-changing care that Shriners Children’s provides.

Former Imperial Potentate Shares Fond Memories of the Carters

Imperial Sir Gary Bergenske, who served as Imperial Potentate 2017-2018, was privileged to meet and work with President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, an association that he treasures.

Bergenske said he first met the Carters in 2014, when the former president supported the philanthropy by making a Valentine’s-themed public service announcement. Bergenske said he was struck by President Carter’s commitment to Shriners Children’s. “He did that out of the kindness of his heart, and he said we could use it anytime we wanted,” Bergenske recalled.

President Carter asked what he could do for Shriners Children’s, “and I gave him a whole wish list,” Bergenske said. The commercial was just the start of the association between the former president and the Shriners organizations. President Carter went on to fulfill nearly every item on Bergenske’s list, supporting an outreach clinic in Haiti, helping arrange military transport for volcano victims in Guatemala and more.

The only thing he was never able to do was accept an invitation to attend Imperial Session. So in 2018, Imperial Sir Bergenske went to the Carter home in Plains, Georgia, to present him with the Imperial Potentate’s Medallion and the Humanitarian Award from the philanthropy.

Bergenske and his wife, Lady Anne, visited with the Carters several times. “What an experience, to just sit and have dinner with them as friends,” Bergenske said. “It was our joint love of helping others that drew us together.”

Bergenske said that although the two men were very different, they had an important thing in common. “He wanted to help Shriners Children’s, and we wanted to help him and the Carter Center too. We were both working together to help kids. It was a really great relationship.”

Bergenske said he looked to President Carter as a mentor and an example. “He set the bar high, but he was very humble in what he did.”

When Carter advised him to keep a record of every day he was in office as Imperial Potentate, Bergenske was skeptical. After Carter showed him the diary he kept during his time in the Oval Office, Bergenske agreed. “Promise me,” Bergenske recalls Carter pushing him. Who could say no to that? The result was a diary detailing each day of Bergenske’s time as Imperial Potentate, which he published – after showing Carter the transcript. “He was the catalyst for that project,” Bergenske said. “He knew how valuable it would be. It was part of his mentoring.”

The former president’s legacy is tremendous, Bergenske said. “He has touched so many lives, it is just unapproachable by anyone else. Jimmy Carter was passionate about helping others and loved doing that with us.”