Pittsford woman reflects on her time working with former President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter campaigned for president as a laid-back Everyman, looking very much at home in jeans and an Allman Brothers T-shirt, and the former peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, maintained that identity during his one term in office.

His administration was not seen as successful by most measures, but he is arguably the most consequential former president in U.S. history, having devoted more than 40 years to expanding human rights, negotiating peace agreements, eradicating neglected diseases and working for Habitat for Humanity.

And behind the scenes?

“He was very focused and very disciplined,” said Kelly Gagan of Pittsford, who for three years starting at age 32 worked and traveled extensively with Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, as a member of the staff of The Carter Center, a nonprofit the couple founded in 1982.

“By 7 a.m. he had read four newspapers,” Gagan said of the 39^th president, and he was completely on top of his schedule.

Every day, there was a binder. And in the binder was a plan, and the plan was broken into half-hour increments with information about meetings and participants and intended outcomes. “He read every page of those binders,” she said.

“He was always prepared, and he demanded that of us,” she said, “and for me at a young age, it was very important to see that to understand how to model my career and really who I am as a person.”

It is one of many lessons Gagan, now 57 and associate vice president for University Advancement at the University of Rochester, absorbed from her singular experience. She’s been reflecting on them anew following the news that Carter, who at 98 also is longest-surviving president, has entered hospice care.

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She never imagined such an opportunity would present itself.

In 1997, she was 10 years out of Le Moyne College and living in Atlanta, where her husband, Dennis, had been transferred by his then-employer, Exxon Mobil Chemical.

Previously, she’d worked in fundraising, including at a hospital in her native Syracuse.

After having her first child, “I discovered that I missed work,” she said.

One day while perusing the help-wanted section, she noticed a brief classified ad for a fundraising job. The organization wasn’t identified. Applicants were instructed to mail resumes to a post office box.

It turned out that the position — as senior associate director of major gifts — was with The Carter Center. After being hired, Gagan stayed through 2000, leaving only when Dennis’ job again required the family to relocate, this time to the Rochester area.

One of the quotes President Carter was partial to, she said, was, “Blessed are those who plant trees under whose shade they will never sit,” which spoke to his belief in building a legacy and the power of philanthropy.

Through an endowment that was around $100 million when Gagan joined the staff and now totals $1 billion, the Center has been able to alleviate suffering in some of the world’s most impoverished, underserved communities.

It has, for example, nearly vanquished Guinea worm disease, which is spread through contaminated drinking water and causes painful open blisters on an infected person’s lower limbs, often leading to permanent disability.

“When the campaign to eradicate it started in 1986, there were 3.5 million cases in 21 different countries,” Gagan said. Carter’s goal was to wipe it out by 2022. “In 2022, there were 13 cases.”

His work has long drawn the admiration and financial support of Hollywood legends, household names and international figures. He was in frequent contact with the Dalai Lama, just one of the luminaries Gagan was able to meet during her time at the Center.

However, “President Carter was never about the fame or who he was with,” she said. “It was all about telling the story of the work and how people could join with him.”

So was being true to himself, something he modeled daily.

“He led by example,” Gagan said. “He never lectured. He lived his values, and those of us who worked with him watched that every day.”

Another message that resonated: “Don’t sit on the sidelines. Get involved.”

Gagan traveled to the Center to visit former colleagues just before the coronavirus pandemic hit and returned there again last summer. She hasn’t seen the Carters since 2000 but was made aware of President Carter’s recent decline by her Atlanta contacts before the news was shared by media.

“Emotions are running quite high, and I can understand why,” she said. “He’s a remarkable individual, and the thought of losing him is heartbreaking to so many of us.”

She said she’s not surprised by his decision to publicize his shift to hospice care.

“Bringing visibility to the hospice movement is not out of character,” said Gagan, the mother of three grown children. “He understands that, even at this stage, it will encourage so many of us to understand more about it and end-of-life care.

“He’s lived his life with dignity, and that’s how it will end, surrounded by people who care so deeply for him in his hometown. He’s a gentle, thoughtful man who is entering his final days with the humanity he has always exhibited.”

Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Jimmy Carter remembered by former staffer Kelly Gagan