To his personal amusement and the surprise of the nation, Coolidge announced his decision not to seek reelection in a sharp and typically playful statement: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." He never explained why. Those closest to him suggested that he turned down almost certain reelection out of concern for his health. Others have speculated that he was perceptive enough to want to get out of the White House before the coming economic crash, which he had predicted to his wife.

In his retirement, Coolidge returned to Northhampton, Massachusetts, where he spent the next four years writing his autobiography and articles for national magazines. His nationally syndicated column for the McClure Newspaper chain, Thinking Things over with Calvin Coolidge, ran for a year in 1931. On January 5, 1933, Coolidge collapsed in his bedroom just after lunch-where he had gone to take his usual two-hour nap. His wife found him dead from a coronary thrombosis (heart failure). Characteristically, Coolidge's last will was brief and to the point: "Not unmindful of my son John, I give all my estate, both real and personal, to my wife, Grace Coolidge, in fee simple." It amounted to about $700,000.