By my count, we now have four living ex-Presidents--Ford, Carter, Bush I, and Clinton. Before President Reagan's demise today, we had five, and I believe that's the most that we've ever had. It seems unlikely that we'd have ever had more than that in our nation's history, given the lengths of terms and the ages at which presidents normally become president, but does anyone know for sure?

Of course, if one wanted to be macabre, one could start a pool on who will be the next to go, and if it will occur before the current president joins their ranks (which of course depends a lot on what happens in November...).

Hm, well, when Clinton took office in 1993 there was Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush 41 -- so before today wasn't the first time we'd had five living former presidents.

LBJ died in the 1970s, he and Truman went about a year apart. Eisenhower died in 1969 and Hoover in 1964. The last former president to die before Hoover would have been Coolidge, I guess, during FDR's presidency. Wilson died in, I believe, 1924, Taft in 1930, TR in 1919.

To go back any further I'd have to start looking things up (am I insufferable or what?). But I think you may be right about five being the record.

BTW, the first time America had four living former presidents was between March 4, 1825 and July 4, 1826, when John Quincy Adams had Monroe, Madison, Jefferson and his own father looking over his shoulder. Jefferson and the elder Adams, of course, died on the same day.

I didn't claim it was the first time. I was aware that it was true before Nixon's death during the Clinton administration. I was just pointing out that five is probably the record.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was quibbling when I wrote that. Just thinking "out loud." It's an intriguing question for a history geek like me.

Seems to me one reason why five is the record, and apparently set only since Reagan left office, is that for so long in this nation's history there's never been a comparable period in which at least one president hasn't died in office.

That is to say, there's only been one period longer, and that was before 1841 -- long ago.

I think I'll just shut up now.

Heh, I love this kind of historical trivia. You provoked me into looking it up.

As far as I can tell, five at a time is the record, but it has been tied before: From 1861-1862 there were five ex-presidents simultaneously alive: Martin van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan.

I should note also that, as life spans continue to increase (perhaps radically, with research on the horizon), I suspect that the record will be broken in the future, assuming the continued survival of the republic.

Somewhere on the internet, I remember, someone wrote an essay wondering what radically extended lifespans would mean in politics. Would the pace of political developments be retarded if many or most senators and MPs had public careers lasting fifty or eighty years? Or would they be discarded at the same current pace and their continued presence prove an embarrassment to themselves and their successors?

Imagine if we didn't just have Ford, Carter, Clinton and Bush (I) still around but also Teddy Roosevelt, Coolidge, Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ and Nixon. Not to mention Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Churchill and DeGaulle. Or--dare I say--Stalin and Mao? The possibilities seem endless, if you go back far enough: What if Bismarck had lived until the 1960s? Or if the diplomats who carved up the Ottoman Empire were still alive and active today, along with everyone who came afterward?

Maybe McGehee or another "history geek" can verify something for me or tell me that I'm all wet. I think it's true that the presidents elected in 1860, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1940, and 1960 all died in office. Slightly off topic I know but I seem to remember a lot of talk about it around the time President Reagan was elected and again after the attempt on his life.

I always thought those pictures showing them all together, smiling, were really powerful. Instead of putting up the picture of the current president in all of our embassies, we should be putting up the picture of the living presidents. How many countries in the world have a peaceful transition of power like that.