Not many can say they’ve attended a nearly private church service with a former president.
In 2021, Atlanta man Michael Tropp was traveling with a friend to Plains, Georgia, where former president Jimmy Carter was born and the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park is located. Tropp, a US history buff, had passed through Plains before. He’s snacked on the town’s peanut butter ice cream, a favorite of Carter’s. He’s bought a can of Billy Beer, a beverage promoted by Carter’s brother. He’s purchased many of Carter’s books.
On this trip, he wanted to make a stop at the church the Carters attended, which has long been a popular destination for those hoping to spot the former president.
A woman at the hotel they were staying at in Americus, Georgia, had hinted at them to attend the Sunday service at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Carter taught Sunday school for decades, drawing people from all over the world to hear his lessons. It turns out, the woman had been very close to the Carter family and worked on Carter’s campaign. She had just dropped food at their house.
“I just get lucky half the time,” Tropp said of his presidential encounters over the years.
What they didn’t expect was to be the only two in the service, besides Secret Service personnel, with the president and his wife, Rosalynn Carter. It was one of the first services the couple attended at their longtime Plains church since the pandemic had drastically curbed in-person gatherings.
“It was literally the Carters, their Secret Service, me, my friend, the minister and the choir,” Tropp, 45, said. “That was it.”
He later spotted Rosalynn on a stroll outside with a Secret Service agent and got a picture with her. She died in November 2023.
That was the last time of four instances Tropp saw Carter. Carter died on December 29 in Plains at the age of 100 surrounded by family after being in home hospice care since 2023. Carter became the oldest living former president when he surpassed the record held by the late George H.W. Bush in March 2019.
Carter isn’t the only US president Tropp has gotten to meet. He’s met seven including Carter: Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. He hasn’t met President-elect Donald Trump yet, he said.
Tropp has a dedication to learning more about US history and he sees and learns more about the United States through every visit to a gravesite or historic town.
“I am a history buff,” Tropp said. “I love US history, politics, European history, European politics. I used to read history books on summer break. I’m such a nerd. I’ve always loved it.”
An early interest in presidential history
Growing up, Tropp said his uncle loved history and instilled that in Tropp as a kid. His childhood is filled with memories of visiting Virginia to see George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, or Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.
“I think just sort of being from there and being surrounded by history, when I was a kid, was really influential on me,” said Tropp, 45, who considered a career in politics but ultimately landed in sales. He’s originally from Philadelphia, where he was able to travel to many presidential and historic sites along the East Coast.
And he’s not afraid to go out on a limb to make presidential connections.
He met President Joe Biden about 20 years ago in Washington, DC, while he was out at dinner. Tropp asked him, “Aren’t you Sen. Biden of Delaware?”
To that, Biden responded, “No.”
Tropp, defeated, went back to eating. But later, he persisted in asking again. That time, a blond woman sitting next to Biden, his wife and now first lady Jill Biden, nudged him to respond.
“Well, this is Mrs. Biden, so I guess I am Joe Biden,” Biden said to Tropp. Mrs. Biden took a photo of the two of them.
He puts many of his presidential meetings down to pure luck or just being in the right place at the right time.
Those opportunities, mixed with travels to gravesites and other historical monuments, have made for a lifelong hobby. Since he started visiting presidential gravesites as a kid, he’s made a point to visit all 39.
He visited Jefferson’s gravesite, which he recalls being the first one he visited, at 10 years old. Jefferson grew 23 varieties of peas, he recalled, which was Tropp’s favorite vegetable. Young Tropp told his parents at the time that he thought he was related to the third president. His family still teases him about it to this day.
Every gravesite, he said, is different.
He calls Abraham Lincoln’s gravesite, located in Springfield, Illinois, “the best” for its tomb and intricate interior space. The tomb was reconstructed twice due to deterioration, but is constructed of dressed granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, and sits at 117 feet tall, according to the city of Springfield.
But lesser-known presidents, he said, like Millard Fillmore, who is buried at Forrest Lawn in Buffalo, New York, or Martin Van Buren, who is buried in the Dutch Reform cemetery in Kinderhook, New York, aren’t nearly as elaborate. Thirteen presidents are buried in public cemeteries. The others are in presidential libraries, standalone memorials, private estates, national cemeteries or even churches.
Now, every year on Tropp’s birthday, he plans a trip around presidential gravesites. While he’s already visited all 39, he will make trips back, bringing along friends and learning more about US history as he goes.
Tropp paid his respects to Carter in Atlanta at The Carter Center on Monday. He called the experience “surreal,” recounting everything from the crisp American flag on the coffin to the young representatives watching over the area. Tropp said a quick prayer when he was there, he said.
After a funeral service on Thursday in Washington, Carter will be laid to rest in Plains at the same location where his wife was buried in 2023. The first chance he gets, Tropp said he will visit Carter’s burial site, should it be opened to the public.
He has shown he’s committed to presidential history.
“Whatever it is, I will do it,” Tropp said prior to the event at The Carter Center, which allowed the public to walk past the late president’s coffin. “I’ll stand in line. If I have to stand in line for two or three hours to pay respects to Jimmy Carter … I’ll gladly stand in line to pay my respects to him.”
He ended up spending two hours there on Monday, standing in line, walking through the museum and paying his respects to the 39th president of the United States.