Former Imperial Potentate Shares Fond Memories of President and Rosalynn Carter

Imperial Sir Gary Bergenske, who served as Imperial Potentate 2017-2018, was privileged to meet and work with President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, an association that he treasures.

Bergenske said he first met the Carters in 2014, when the former president supported the philanthropy by making a Valentine’s-themed public service announcement. Bergenske said he was struck by President Carter’s commitment to Shriners Children’s. “He did that out of the kindness of his heart, and he said we could use it anytime we wanted,” Bergenske recalled.

President Carter asked what he could do for Shriners Children’s, “and I gave him a whole wish list,” Bergenske said. The commercial was just the start of the association between the former president and the Shriners organizations. President Carter went on to fulfill nearly every item on Bergenske’s list, supporting an outreach clinic in Haiti, helping arrange military transport for volcano victims in Guatemala and more.

The only thing he was never able to do was accept an invitation to attend Imperial Session. So in 2018, Imperial Sir Bergenske went to the Carter home in Plains, Georgia, to present him with the Imperial Potentate’s Medallion and the Humanitarian Award from the philanthropy.

Bergenske and his wife, Lady Anne, visited with the Carters several times. “What an experience, to just sit and have dinner with them as friends,” Bergenske said. “It was our joint love of helping others that drew us together.”

Bergenske said that although the two men were very different, they had an important thing in common. “He wanted to help Shriners Children’s, and we wanted to help him and the Carter Center too. We were both working together to help kids. It was a really great relationship.”

Bergenske said he looked to President Carter as a mentor and an example. “He set the bar high, but he was very humble in what he did.”

When Carter advised him to keep a record of every day he was in office as Imperial Potentate, Bergenske was skeptical. After Carter showed him the diary he kept during his time in the Oval Office, Bergenske agreed. “Promise me,” Bergenske recalls Carter pushing him. Who could say no to that? The result was a diary detailing each day of Bergenske’s time as Imperial Potentate, which he published — after showing Carter the transcript. “He was the catalyst for that project,” Bergenske said. “He knew how valuable it would be. It was part of his mentoring.”

The former president’s legacy is tremendous, Bergenske said. “He has touched so many lives, it is just unapproachable by anyone else. Jimmy Carter was passionate about helping others and loved doing that with us.”