Rick Jasculca has done work, off and on, for Jimmy Carter for nearly 50 years. And in the wake of the former president’s Dec. 29 death at age 100, Jasculca, a 77-year-old River Forest resident, had one more assignment. Jasculca and three of his four children helped to plan the state funeral for Carter. “He and Rosalynn were such an important part not only of my life, but our family’s life,” said Jasculca, a cofounder of the prominent Chicago strategic communications firm Jasculca Terman. “Three of my four kids, on a regular basis, did his Carter Center trips.” In 1975, neighborhood newspaper publisher Lou Lerner, a friend of Jasculca who was also active in Democratic Party politics, told Jasculca, already a veteran of several political campaigns, that he was giving him the chance to work for the next president of the United States. “I said OK Lou, I’ll bite, Who are you talking about?” Jasculca recalled. “He said Jimmy Carter and I said, who the blank is Jimmy Carter?” Jasculca had never heard of the former Georgia governor, who at the time was kicking off a longshot presidential campaign. But Jasculca signed on, and got started doing advance work for the Carter campaign. Initially he primarily focused on Rosalynn Carter’s campaign stops, but also did some work for Jimmy Carter. When Carter defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election Jasculca, while remaining based in Chicago, did advance work for the next four years including for presidential trips to Japan, Rome and the Vatican. “I remember how very down to earth he was,” Jasculca said. “I noticed his ability to just really connect and his penchant for punctuality.” After Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Carters and Jasculca kept in touch. Jasculca, and eventually his children Aimee, Andrew and Lauren who all followed him into public relations work, did advance work for many of the overseas and domestic trips the Carters did through the Carter Center in his long post presidency, including numerous trips to Africa. The Jasculcas and the Carters became friends. Jimmy Carter was something of a father figure to Jasculca, who was only 20 when his own father died of a heart attack, and became something of an additional grandfather to his four children. “Over the years and decades, he became my North Star,” Jasculca said. Members of Rick Jasculca’s family surround former President Jimmy Carter in this undated photo. Jasculca’s family and the Carters became friends over the last five decades. “Over the years and decades, he became my North Star,” Rick Jasculca said. (Jasculca family) Subsequently, Jasculca did political advance work for Bill and Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel and others, but his connection with the Carters stood out. “As the years went on we just developed a bond,” Jasculca said. Jasculca was struck by how humble Carter was, always carrying his own suitcase, and how indefatigable he was On his trips he was on the go day and night, sometimes wearing out Jasculca. “He never forgot where he came from,” Jasculca said. He got to know Carter’s children and the Carters got to know his four kids. “They made me feel like part of their family,” Jasculca said. “That is just who they are as a family and I love them like family.” In 1986 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were working on a Habitat for Humanity project in Chicago. They needed to do laundry and, because the humble hotel that the Carters were staying in on the West Side of Chicago had no laundry service, Jasculca’s wife, Judy, offered to pick up their laundry and take it the Jasculca’s home on Franklin Avenue in River Forest and do it for them. But Roslynn Carter would have none of that. “Rosalynn said I don’t want you doing my laundry, I’d be happy to come out with you but I’m going to do the laundry and that’s exactly what happened and that’s who both of them were,” Jasculca said. When Judy Jasculca died in 2010, the first phone call Rick Jasculca got was from Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter offering their condolences. “It meant the world to me,” said Jasculca, who also received condolence calls from President Barack Obama and the Clintons. In 2014 when Jasculca was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award at the Publicity Club of Chicago’s annual dinner, Jimmy Carter delivered the keynote speech. Jasculca said the achievements of the Carters will endure, pointing to their work that helped practically extinguish Guinea worm disease in Africa as well as all their work promoting peace and democracy worldwide. “They didn’t go for the glamor, they went for things that could make a difference to the populations and enhance the quality of life for everyone,” Jasculca said. “It is their commitment and their humanity which I think is the core of what we will be celebrating in Atlanta, Washington and Plains over the next week.” Bob Skolnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.