This week, southwest Minnesota residents said they remembered former President Jimmy Carter as a leader who tried to bring people together. But maybe even more than that, they remembered him setting a good example for a public figure after he left office, area residents said.

One of the lasting memories of Carter for Marshall resident Tony Doom was Carter’s work with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit that helps build homes.

“He was a prime example of what a public servant can be,” Doom said.

Carter, the 39th president of the United States, died Sunday. He was 100.

In a statement Sunday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Carter’s passing was “the culmination of a life well lived.”

“He will be remembered not as a politician, but as an unrelenting force for good,” Klobuchar said.

Carter’s first presidential campaign came in 1976. That was about when Wabasso farmer Paul Sobocinski had just started farming. Sobocinski said he remembered listening to political debates and taking an interest.

“Carter had this knack of bringing people together, I thought,” he said.

That sense of unity was something important in the U.S. after the Nixon era, said Nobles county resident and former Minnesota state legislator Ted Winter.

“At the time (Carter) was president, he took over a very disgruntled citizenry in the country,” Winter said. “He had to come in as a president and bring people together.”

Doom said one of the things supporters liked about Carter was that he wasn’t seen as a Washington insider.

“I liked the concept of a peanut farmer rising to the national stage, instead of a professional politician,” Doom said.

Carter’s administration also had connections to Minnesota, with his vice president, Sen. Walter Mondale. Bob Bergland, Carter’s secretary of agriculture, had also represented Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District. Both Mondale and Bergland were good choices, with a strong understanding of farming communities, Sobocinski said.

“Bob always had a strong commitment and concern for farm families,” he said.

“Jimmy Carter had a real impact on the evolution of the vice-presidency. He actually gave the vice president things to do,” said Marshall resident Al Kruse. Kruse said Mondale worked to get Carter’s message across in Congress.

Sobocinski and Winter also said it was notable how Carter also tried to bring people together on the world stage. “He tried to bring together the Middle East,” through the Camp David Accords, Winter said.

While Carter had positive goals, he wasn’t always the best messenger for those goals, Kruse said. “He was much more effective after the presidency,” he said. “The impact of a lot of the things he accomplished weren’t realized until years later.”

Carter’s humanitarian work with the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity made an impact in the decades after his presidency, area residents said.

“I think he was a very good man,” Kruse said.