It may come as a surprise that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter had an honorary degree from Illinois College in Jacksonville. He visited the campus in 2014 for a panel discussing how to achieve peace in the Middle East. Illinois College President Barbara Farley accompanied the President during his visit that day and remembers it fondly.
"He was generous and kind and down-to-earth," she recalls of the visit. "He was the man I'd always seen on television. He had done his homework. He had studied my new presidency at Illinois College and I had only been here just over a year."
That day, Carter received a Doctor of Humane Letters from the college. Farley says he was in the community for about seven hours and visited with local business leaders, students and faculty before presenting his lecture and receiving his honorary degree.
How did the trip come together?
Farley says the visit was made possible by the efforts of former Illinois Congressman Paul Findley, who lived in Jacksonville, and Al Habtoor, chair of the Al Habtoor Group based in the United Arab Emirates. He was a benefactor of the college who had done work with both Findley and the Carter Center.
What did he do while he was in Illinois?
Carter toured Illinois College's Al Habtoor archives which had just been dedicated the night before his visit.
He also met with students with the Phi Alpha Literary Society in the Paul Findley office museum.
Then he had lunch at the President's residence. She remembers the Secret Service being in her home watching over the President.
"After lunch, President Carter took a break because the next thing was going to be the lecture and the Secret Service moved outside the door of the room where he was taking a rest," Farley recalls. "I walked by because I needed to get something and I said, 'I'm sorry. Maybe I shouldn't be here.' And [the Secret Service] said, 'Ma'am, this is your house.' And so it was just really wild," Farley said.
Then it was time for Carter to present a speech focusing on his post-presidency work which included efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
"And given the events of this last year, it's really sobering to listen to what he had to say ten years ago in terms of his aspirations for a two-state solution," Farley said.
The entire speech is available here.
"He was only here for about six or seven hours," Farley said. "But we did a lot. We crammed a lot into that time."
She says her lasting memory of the visit is that so many local young people were able to hear from him directly.
"He was president before they were born, " Farley noted. "He's somebody in the history books, and I think that the fact that our students at Illinois College and students from around the area came together to be exposed to his ideas and his thoughts that day, and that his visit lingers on in the memory of Illinois College, was very special."