CHARLOTTE — After Former President Jimmy Carter’s time in the White House, he spent years doing humanitarian work through the Carter Work Project, including in Charlotte.
Carter made a lifelong friend during one of his visits to the Queen City.
“(He) had a great sense of humor, and we had a lot of fun,” said Bob Wilson. “We were very, very, very close. Very good friends and we have some great memories.”
Wilson didn’t know he would meet someone that would change his life that day.
“It was my privilege to work with him,” he said.
The two met in 1987 through the Carter Work Project. They built 14 Habitat for Humanity homes in Charlotte’s Optimist Park neighborhood.
The home Carter built is still there.
“His heart was always with those of us in our world who were less fortunate,” Wilson said. “And that always came through in everything he was doing. Everything he believed in. Jimmy clearly used his faith and prestige, if you will, to put Habitat on the map.”
In the 1990s, Wilson said the two became fly-fishing buddies and they would spend the next 20+ years taking trips together across the world.
“Only two times in 25 years that I actually got a bigger fish than he did,” Wilson said. “As competitive as Jimmy Carter was, those are memories that I will have to take my grave. They were fun times.”
Their families grew together, too.
About 10 years ago, Carter married Wilson and his wife in a Cornelius church.
“Jimmy touched my life, touched my inner being and changed me and made me realize what was really important in life,” he said.
Carter died at 100 years old on Sunday and to Wilson, it was life well-lived.
“He was a farmer and he never forgot where he came from, and that was one of the beauties of the man,” Wilson said. “I think history will be very kind to Jimmy Carter.”
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