In the days since former President Jimmy Carter’s death, many past and present Glencoe residents are recalling their personal interactions with the 39th president of the United States.
Carter visited Glencoe in November 1978 for a fundraiser for then-U.S. Congressman Abner Mikva, days ahead of the midterm elections that year.
Carter spoke at a public rally at the since-closed Niles East High School in Skokie for Mikva earlier that day and then the group went north to Glencoe for a private fundraiser at the home of Newton Minow, the former FCC chairman, who was a lifelong friend of Mikva.
The event was scheduled a couple of weeks in advance and all three Minow daughters, who at the time were living in different parts of the country, were asked to come home to attend the fundraiser.
Minow’s daughter Nell recalls a frenetic scene leading up to the fundraiser with the Secret Service setting up 17 different telephone lines and bringing along a bomb-sniffing dog.
She said the Secret Service delivered an instruction to her parents the president would not be eating but to have a glass of water available if Carter got thirsty. Nell Minow said a separate directive was a strict limitation on the number of guests inside the home. That put her mother, Jo, in a bit of a quandary as she was getting many requests from her friends who wanted their children to meet Carter.
So Jo Minow had a brainstorm where instead of the caterers offering the food, she “hired” the teenagers to serve. The plan didn’t exactly work out as well as hoped as the teenagers constantly dropped the hors d’oeuvres.
“They did a terrible job and made a huge mess,” Nell Minow laughingly recalled.
Minow said Carter stood as part of a receiving line and then spoke highly of Mikva, who would win that race. Carter later appointed Mikva to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
She also said Carter was very gracious to everyone and recalled an anecdote that she readily acknowledges would be viewed differently today as opposed to 1978.
She recalled as the fundraiser was coming to an end the Minow family joined Carter, Mikva and U.S. Senator Adlai Stevenson posing for a picture in the living room. Carter, who was between Nell Minow and her sister Martha, put his arms around both of them.
“I just remember thinking the president of the United States has his arm around me and this is amazing,” she remembered.
As they were taking the pictures, in a development that seems antiquated in today’s digital age, the photographer ran out of film and had to reload. Thus everyone had to maintain their pose for a few moments.
“I said to the photographer to take his time. I’m enjoying this,” Nell said. “Jimmy Carter laughed and he said ‘the White House photographer knows to take his time when I am standing between pretty girls.’”
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The fundraiser lasted for about an hour and the original plan was for Carter to leave the Minow house and wave to large group of people lined up on the Glencoe street.
Instead, Carter, flanked by his security team, decided to shake hands with his admirers.
Among that group of officers was Paul Harlow, at that time a detective in Glencoe’s public safety department.
“The task was that as he proceeded and walked down that line, we were following that line and looking for anybody and anyone that would extend toward the president or pose a threat to him,” Harlow remembered. “I had the unique position of being within four to five feet of the president all along the way and I don’t think I ever looked at him. I was too concerned about the responsibilities I had that no one in that crowd could compromise his safety.”
Harlow recalled how he worked with the Secret Service in advance on how to position himself and look out for anyone who could cause problems.
“It was so different and outside of the normal role that a Glencoe public safety officer would have been playing; it was very exciting. But of course there is some nervousness that comes with that level of exposure. It was an interesting evening,” he said.
Harlow, who would later be promoted to public safety director and then village manager, said the public safety team got together afterward once Carter had left without any security issues, feeling a sense of accomplishment.
“It was a nice debriefing that we can all feel good and how it went and the role we played and the president came into town and left safely,” he said.
Among the reporters standing outside the Minow house that night was ABC News correspondent Ann Compton, who grew up in Glencoe. Thus, Carter’s foray into Glencoe that night provided Compton an opportunity to take care of an important personal task.
“I found my mother in the crowd and handed her my wedding invitations because my wedding was coming up,” Compton happily recalls.
Compton covered seven different presidents as White House correspondent and said like all presidents, the Carter administration could be wary of the press, but she noted the positive interactions with the president himself.
“There were several times we had private little conversations with him and I felt very comfortable with him and I think he felt very comfortable with me,” she said.
Compton, who traveled with Carter on reporting assignments, said the 1978 Camp David Accords leading to the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt was “unquestionably the most thrilling moment of the Carter presidency.”
She remembered the moment Carter, along with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, got out of the backseat of a car and boarded a helicopter to get back to Washington ahead of the formal announcement.
“That was a thrill to see the three of them emerge,” Compton said. “It was the first time we had seen them in 13 days.”
Compton remembered seeing Carter again at a White House ceremony tied to the Middle East after he left the White House.
“He gave me a big hug and asked how I was doing,” she said. “He knew I had gotten married and had children.”
Carter’s post-presidency took him and wife, Rosalynn, on charitable efforts all over the world. In the summer of 2018, they came to South Bend, Indiana working on a local project for Habitat for Humanity.
The Carters decided they wanted to watch a baseball game that night and the South Bend Cubs, a minor league team, had a home game that night.
Security arrangements were quickly made by the organization, which is owned by Glencoe resident Andrew Berlin. In a historic coincidence, Berlin now lives in the same house the Minows lived in in 1978 when the Carters came to the fundraiser.
Berlin said he was out of the country at the time, but quickly arranged to have a suite ready for the Carters including having team jerseys made for them with their names on the back. He shot a video introducing their presence to the crowd and had a chance to talk with them virtually.
“For him to be there it was an honor. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, this was the president of the United States,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for him. No one can ever doubt his efforts and integrity. That is very much in need these days.”
While Andrew Berlin was out of town that day, his wife, Courtney, and their two boys were able to join the Carters in the suite. The former first couple talked with the family throughout the game and posed for pictures with them.
Courtney Berlin said the Carters could not have been friendlier when they spoke to her and the boys that evening. The Carers talked, in particularly, about their love of baseball.
“He was so down to earth and such a regular person,” she said. “Once they came in the room and we started talking, our nerves just went away. He made us feel comfortable.”
She marveled at their endurance as the Carters, both in their 90s at the time, had spent the day working at the Habitat for Humanity project and stayed for most of the game.
“They were a cute couple and they were inseparable. When I had a conversation with President Carter she was standing there right by his side the entire time,” Berlin said. “I just felt so honored and privileged to meet this great individual who led our country.”
