Institute leaders gather with members of the Carter family to celebrate the tree planting dedicated to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter outside the D.M. Smith Building. (Pictured: Josh and Sarah Carter; Cassidy Sugimoto, the Tom and Marie Patton Professor and Chair of the Carter School of Public Policy; President Cabrera; Jason Carter, chair of The Carter Center board of trustees; Paige Alexander, CEO of The Carter Center; Frank Southworth, adjunct researcher from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Amanda Murdie, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.)

Yesterday morning, the Institute community gathered at the newly renovated D.M. Smith Building to celebrate the naming of our School of Public Policy after two of the most beloved Georgians in our state’s history: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

In a packed, standing-room-only auditorium, we were joined by members of the Carter family, representatives from the The Carter Center, University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue, and several government leaders, past and present. These included former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn (IM 1960, HON Ph.D. 2008); Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta, U.S. congressman, and ambassador to the United Nations; state Sen. Jason Anavitarte (M.S. PUBP 2004); state Sen. Max Burns (IE 1973); and state Rep. Saira Draper (PUBP 2006).

From the Gold Dome, to the White House, to their work with The Carter Center, Habitat for Humanity, and their other nonprofit organizations, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter led by example, with great humility, and with an unshakeable moral compass. They are remembered as beacons of hope and inspiration who dedicated themselves to addressing humanity’s most pressing challenges — disease, poverty, hunger, and homelessness alongside threats to peace, freedom, justice, and the environment. 

The Carters led lives defined by our motto of Progress and Service, and the work they did together serves as a model of effective leadership and lasting impact. I cannot think of a more fitting or inspiring name for our School of Public Policy, and it was truly an honor to celebrate their enduring legacy at Georgia Tech. 

One of the highlights of the ceremony was hearing from Josh Carter, grandson of Jimmy and Rosalynn, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. I liked his speech so much that I asked him for a copy to post here, and he happily obliged! 

I said “Go Jackets” in the very first speech I ever gave on behalf of my grandfather.

I was at the Naval Academy. They had just renamed one of their classroom buildings Carter Hall, and, much like today, I was there to accept the honor. In doing so, I credited the Academy for helping to forge my grandfather’s sense of duty and service to our country. But I wanted to make sure that I reminded the superintendent of the Naval Academy, the secretary of the Navy, and everyone else present that Jimmy Carter got his start at Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech is where my grandfather learned to love engineering. It gave him the foundation to oversee testing the Navy’s most advanced communications systems as his first job out of school. Georgia Tech gave my grandfather the knowledge and the work ethic to build our nuclear navy with Adm. Hyman Rickover. And Georgia Tech was the place where my grandfather first started learning Spanish, which he practiced while talking about the Panama Canal with Panamanian engineering students. Every time my grandfather talked about his time at the Naval Academy, he always made it a point to say that he got his start at Georgia Tech, and he left here to graduate from an easier school.

Go Jackets.

Growing up, I listened to my grandfather’s stories about Tech, and I was determined to get here, even back when I thought that engineers were just people who drove trains. One of the most memorable events of my life happened in Fitten Hall at 5:15 one morning during my freshman year. The phone rang, and I picked it up and heard my grandmother say, “Josh, this is Mom. I’m sorry to wake you up, but Jimmy just won the Nobel Peace Prize!” I immediately learned that the Nobel Peace Prize was being awarded during exams. So, I went to each of my professors to explain my predicament, and every one of them agreed that, as far as missing-exam excuses go, this one was new.

It was fitting that it was my grandmother who called me that morning. As first lady of the United States, she wasn’t exactly in the background, but people often overlook just how instrumental she was in my grandfather’s success. My grandmother was more politically savvy than my grandfather. She was his strategist. She was his confidant. My grandmother was involved in just about every decision, peace deal, ceasefire, and political triumph of my grandfather’s life.

After getting my grandfather elected governor and then president, my grandmother Rosalynn took on her own policy initiatives from an office she set up in the East Wing of the White House. Until it was destroyed last month, the Office of First Lady was a monument where some of the most powerful women in our nation’s history effected change at the highest level. Through that office, my grandmother worked on eliminating the stigma of mental illness, and she testified before Congress to pass the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980. Through that same office, my grandmother strategized for the Equal Rights Amendment — a change to our Constitution that would ensure that women receive all the same rights as men. Through that office, my grandmother sometimes sat in on cabinet meetings, where she represented the president of the United States’ position. 

After the White House, while starting The Carter Center to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope” all over the world, my grandmother led a national campaign to get every child in the United States vaccinated against deadly childhood diseases by their second birthday, and she started work that I now continue in elevating the family caregiver.

Public policy isn’t a structure that you get to admire once it’s built. It’s a garden in an ever-changing climate that needs constant attention. Policies are often controversial, and the work is never done. Public policy is a dry sounding phrase for understanding the needs of an entire population; interrogating the history that has affected it; analyzing mountains of incomplete and imperfect data; and crafting for our communities, our citizens, our country, and our planet a better world. It’s an enormous job, and it’s hard. But Georgia Tech isn’t afraid of hard. It’s defined by it.

I am extremely proud that this school at my alma mater now bears my grandparents’ name. I am extremely thankful to Georgia Tech that all future leaders who walk through that door have Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter as their North Star.

Go Jackets.

Go Jackets, indeed. I want to thank Josh, Jason, and the rest of the Carter family for their support of Georgia Tech and the naming of our newly dedicated Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy.