President Carter has now lived longer than President Adams – and why that’s interesting

As of Saturday, June 6, former President Jimmy Carter will be exactly 90 years and 248 days old. That means he will have lived one day longer than former President John Adams, who passed away at the ripe-young age of 90 years and 247 days.

Jimmy Carter

John Adams

When Adams left his mortal coil on July 4, 1826 (the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence), he was already our nation’s longest-lived President. George Washington had passed away at the age of 67, and so Adams outlived his predecessor by over 22 years.

Adams held the record as longest-lived President for well over a century. It wasn’t until 1964 that former President Hoover became the only other former Commander-in-Chief to make it to his nineties. Alas, Hoover still fell short of being the longest-lived President; he lived a mere 90 years and 71 days. In fact, Adams’ record wasn’t beaten for 175 years, until Ronald Reagan finally took the lead as longest-living President in 2001. Adams then fell to second place.

And in the years since then, Adams has been steadily overtaken by those who have recently held the job of President.

In 2004, Gerald Ford eclipsed Adams, and eventually went on to eclipse Reagan, too. At 93 years, 165 days, he currently holds the record for longest-lived President, besting Reagan by 45 days.

On February 5 of this year, George HW Bush became the third President to live longer than Adams and, as of Saturday, Carter becomes the fourth. And thus, our four most recent Presidents are also our four longest-living Presidents. (This, obviously, excludes Clinton, Bush-43, and Obama who are all too young for this distinguished club. But being that they are all still alive, they all still have the possibility of one-upping Adams, as well.)

The four Presidents who have all lived longer lives than any of the other Presidents. …And Richard Nixon, photobombing.

While Carter, for the moment, is merely the fourth-longest-living President, he does hold the record for longest retirement. He’s been an ex-President for over 34 years now, a comfortable margin over second place Hoover, who enjoyed a 31-year retirement from the Presidency. Incidentally, the shortest retirement of any President – aside from those who died on the job – was James Polk’s; he died a mere three months after leaving office.

And while Carter is both the longest-retired and one of the longest-living former Presidents, one distinction he’s never achieved is being the oldest-living President. Much younger men than him, such as Teddy Roosevelt, Ulysses Grant, and Lyndon Johnson, all achieved the distinction of being the oldest-living President. But despite his advanced age and lengthy retirement, Carter has never snagged this accolade. At the time of his inauguration, on January 20, 1977, he was younger than his two immediate predecessors (Ford and Nixon). He is also younger than his two immediate successors (Reagan and Bush-41), and thus, while all four of these men have, at one time or another, held the distinction of being the oldest living person who has served as President, Carter never has.

Regardless, outliving Adams is nothing to blush at. Congratulations to Carter who has now joined Ford, Reagan, and Bush-41 as one of only four Presidents to achieve this notable feat.