This Is The American President Who’s Lived The Longest

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 15, 6:42AM EST

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This Is The American President Who’s Lived The Longest — © Hulton Archive / Hulton Archive via Getty Images

In March 2019, Jimmy Carter became the longest-living former president in U.S. history. Carter, who is now 96, passed President George H.W. Bush, who, at the time of his death, was the longest living former president. Bush lived to be 94 years and 171 days old.

While many former American presidents led long lives after completing their term, most did not live well into their 90s, and some died not more than a few years after leaving office. Some, of course, even died in the White House. 24/7 Tempo researched the age and cause of death of every U.S. president who has passed away.

The highest office in America may also be one of the most dangerous. Eight out of 44 presidents died in office. Four of those presidents — Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy — were assassinated. At least one assassination attempt has been documented during every presidency since that of Lyndon B. Johnson. Here are the most famous failed assassinations.

The normal proceedings of the presidency may also take a toll on health. The presidency is a high-stress job, and many have left the office with significant health issues. James K. Polk, Chester A. Arthur, and Woodrow Wilson decided against running for an additional term either to escape the stresses of the presidency or because of poor health.

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Jimmy Carter is the longest-living former president. The president with the shortest life was John F. Kennedy, who was 46 years and 177 days at the time of his assassination. These are the 37 most famous assassinations in American history.

George H.W. Bush remains the oldest president who has died. His date of death is November 30, 2018. Bush died in Houston, TX. George H.W. Bush died away at his home in Texas. While the official cause of death has not been released, Bush suffered from the effects of vascular parkinsonism, a disease similar to Parkinson’s disease caused by strokes, and was bound to a wheelchair at the end of his life. At the time of his death, Bush was the longest-lived president, at 94.

Click here to see how long each American President lived.

Click here to see where each President is buried.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.