Less than two weeks before his 100th birthday, former President Jimmy Carter is receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, which has set aside its longstanding rule that the winner accept the honor in person.
The Ohio-based foundation announced Thursday that Carter was this year's winner of the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named for the late diplomat. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights advocacy and for brokering such agreements as the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel.
Carter, who turns 100 on Oct. 1, is in hospice care in Plains, Georgia. His grandson, Jason Carter, will accept the prize on his behalf during a November ceremony that will honor the former president's peace efforts and his authorship of more than 30 books - what the foundation calls "the power of the written word to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding."
"For the past 17 years, one of the standing requirements to receive the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award was a guaranty that the recipient would appear in person in Dayton, OH for an on-stage interview and an awards ceremony," Nicholas A. Raines, executive director of the Dayton foundation, said in a statement. "This year we have decided to waive that requirement and present the award in absentia, to President Jimmy Carter."
Jason Carter said in a statement that two of his grandfather's "most enduring interests have been a devotion to literature and a near-constant pursuit of a peaceful resolution to conflict."
