SUNY Oneonta President Alberto Cardelle and his wife, Rachel Frick Cardelle, plan to visit Washington, D.C. this week to pay their respects to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Carter, who died Dec. 29 at age 100, will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol from 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 7 until 7 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 9. No tickets or reservations are needed to see Carter lie in state. Anyone can visit during the open hours.
The Cardelles, who plan to visit Wednesday, were so inspired by Carter’s life of public service, they wanted to honor his legacy — as private citizens, separate from Cardelle’s role at SUNY Oneonta.
Cardelle met Jimmy Carter three times: once in 1984, again in 1987 and in 1995.
When he was an undergraduate at Tulane University in New Orleans, Carter spoke there. As newsletter editor of the Latino Student Association, Cardelle was able to ask Carter a few questions along with other student leaders.
Cardelle and one of his brothers met Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter in Miami when they all served as volunteers building a Habitat for Humanity home. He met Carter a third time when the former U.S. president spoke at a conference that Cardelle attended when he worked for the Pan American Health Organization.
Cardelle spent a decade working on health care issues prior to his extensive career in higher education.
Like Carter, Cardelle believes that “public health is a basic human right.” He was inspired by The Carter Center’s work with human rights, which led to his work in public health.
Another source of inspiration for Cardelle was Carter’s “continuous active commitment to public service.” Cardelle has dedicated his entire career working for not-for-profit organizations.
Cardelle met his wife when they both worked for Oxfam America in Boston in 1988. Oxfam is a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice.
“Our commitment to public service and public health is what took us to Nicaragua and Guatemala,” Cardelle said. “We moved together to Central America and worked together for two years.”
He and Frick Cardelle helped train indigenous women in Guatemala in good public health practices using a train-the-trainer model.
“The role models that President Carter and Rosalyn Carter were as a married couple and partners in this type of work, we try to emulate,” Cardelle said.
Frick Cardelle said that dedicating yourself to public service “is just a really enjoyable, good way to live and it matters to see that kind of couple at such a high level of visibility and in the world of politics. I deeply appreciate that.”
Frick Cardelle admired the relationship between Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter as “a real partnership… They worked together on the houses (for Habitats for Humanity).”
“The thing I really appreciate about both of them is that they reached the so-called pinnacle: (being) the President of the United States and living in the White House,” Frick Cardelle said. “I think if you asked them that was not the pinnacle … After they left, they were so dedicated to their community, the country as a whole and the world as a whole.”
One of Frick Cardelle’s professors in graduate school at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies was Wayne Smith. There she earned a master’s degree in development economics and social change and development. Smith was the first head of the United States Interests Section in Cuba from 1979 to 1982.
Cardelle grew up in Miami, the son of Cuban immigrants.
Alberto earned his doctorate in international studies from the University of Miami. While there, he worked with Ambassador Ambler Moss. Moss served as the ambassador of the United States to Panama from 1987 to 1982 and was a professor of international studies.
Cardelle continues to contribute his knowledge of public health as a Board Member of A.O. Fox Hospital, Springbrook and the New York Equity Health Council.