Staton-Borowski Memorial Funeral Home in Warren is hosting a Jimmy Carter tribute that includes a display honoring the former president and a guestbook for the public to sign. The public can come to the funeral home, 962 North Road NE, Warren, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays to sign the guestbook, which will be available through the end of the month and then sent to the Carter Center in Atlanta. Sophie Davis of Youngstown views a photograph of former President Jimmy Carter while signing the guestbook on Tuesday.

WARREN — President Jimmy Carter spent decades volunteering on behalf of Habitat for Humanity and building what many people feel is an endearing legacy of service to others.

To Charles Shabla of Vienna, that imprint is far deeper than any political career the 39th president may have built.

“He was always helping people and building homes,” said Shabla, who taught 33 years in the Warren City Schools, including life sciences at the junior high and high school levels.

“He was very caring, very human; he cared about what he was doing and about people,” Sophie Davis of Youngstown said about Carter, who died Dec. 29 at age 100. “We thought we would honor that statement in the new year for someone who served the way he did.”

Echoing those sentiments was Davis’ husband, Tom Davis, who called Carter “a decent man and a decent leader.”

Shabla, Tom and Sophie Davis, however, did more than merely express kind words toward Carter, whose presidential term ran from Jan. 20, 1977, to Jan. 20, 1981. They also were among those who signed a guestbook Tuesday afternoon at Staton-Borowski Funeral Home, 962 North Road, to pay their respects to the former president from Plains, Georgia. Carter’s casket is lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., until Thursday, at which time his funeral will take place at Washington National Cathedral.

Sophie Davis, who has several relatives serving in the military, said her family is highly patriotic — something she also appreciated about Carter, she added.

Also, the former president’s religious beliefs, priorities and faith shone through in the fact that he had devoutly taught Sunday school for many years at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Mike Serotko of Newton Falls, observed.

“He was just a people person,” Serotko said, adding that he voted for Carter in the 1980 presidential election against Republican Ronald Reagan.

Calling Carter “a man of God,” Linda Spellman, 67, of Warren, said she felt spiritually driven to stop by the funeral home Tuesday afternoon to pay her respects. In addition, she voted for Carter in the 1976 presidential election, Spellman said.

Those who signed the guestbook were greeted with a presidential seal above a stand, between two American flags, on which sat the book, along with a small urn and a framed photograph of a pensive Carter, along with a memorial folder that lists his dates of birth and death. Inscribed in the folder is a quote from Carter that reads, “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something … My faith demands that I do whatever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”

James Baer, funeral director, credited Russ Teffner, a part-time director, with coming up with the idea of allowing the public to honor Carter. Before moving back to Warren, Teffner, who he referred to as “a presidential history buff,” worked for a funeral home in Virginia and devised a similar idea after President George H.W. Bush died Nov. 30, 2018.

People were given the opportunity to pay their respects to the nation’s 41st president before the book was sent to the George H.W. Bush Library and Museum in College Station, Texas, followed by a thank-you letter from the presidential library.

Baer recalled having spoken with Teffner about possibly honoring Carter similarly. After the former president’s death a few weeks ago, Teffner flew a flag at half-staff at Staton-Borowski Funeral Home before assembling the room to allow honors to be paid to Carter.

“It’s got everything right about it, and people walk in and can’t thank us enough,” Baer said.

The guestbook will be available to sign through the end of this month, then sent to the Carter Center in Atlanta, he noted.