He was tall and lanky and had to sleep diagonally across the double bed in our guest room.
He had a deep southern accent that would make some northerners cringe in the face of their stereotypes.
He was known around the world but got down on the floor to play with our then-young children every time he visited us.
He moved with ease among the rich and famous, including a former president yet dedicated his life to serving the poor and homeless around the world.
His humble background in a small Georgia town still surprises people today when they realize the impact that he had on poverty and how what he started has changed life for millions and improved the world in so many ways.
He was Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, a project to build affordable, comfortable, quality houses for people across the USA and around the world.
Millard also was the founder and president of The Fuller Center for Housing a similar organization with the same goal. He was widely regarded as the leader of the modern-day movement for affordable housing and was honored for his work in the United States and abroad.
A successful businessman and lawyer, Fuller became a self-made millionaire by age 29. In 1968, after giving up their wealth to refocus their lives on Christian service, Millard and his wife, Linda, moved with their children to an interracial farming community in southwest Georgia. Koinonia Farm, founded by Clarence Jordan in 1942, became home to the family for five years until they moved to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) as missionaries in 1973 with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Upon returning to the United States, the Fullers began a Christian ministry at Koinonia Farm building simple, decent houses for low-income families in their community using volunteer labor and donations, and requiring repayment only of the cost of the materials used. No interest was charged, as it is with traditional mortgages, and no profit was made. These same principles guided the Fullers in expanding this ministry, called Partnership Housing, into a larger scale ministry known as Habitat for Humanity International. That vision was expanded in 2005 in the founding of a new non-profit housing organization, The Fuller Center for Housing.
In early 1984, Millard courted the man who would become Habitat’s most famous volunteer, President Jimmy Carter. A native of Plains, Georgia, just a few miles from Habitat’s headquarters in Americus, Georgia, Carter gave not only his reputation to the new non-profit, but his own resources as well. President Carter and his wife Rosalynn would make financial contributions regularly, but most significantly to the organization, they would develop the Jimmy Carter Work Project, an annual week-long effort of building Habitat homes all over the world. The Carters participated for the full week at these events which came to attract thousands of volunteers each year.The Carters’ involvement with Habitat propelled the organization to even faster growth.
Fuller continued his work in the housing movement with the establishment of the Fuller Center for Housing in April 2005. He expanded on the foundation of Habitat by encouraging communities to create “collaborative and innovative partnerships” to address the housing needs of the most needy in communities. He continued to travel extensively, speaking at Habitat affiliates and Fuller Center Covenant Partnerships to raise awareness, funds and volunteers in his effort to eradicate poverty housing from the face of the earth.
Millard was the recipient of numerous awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. In September 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and said, “Millard Fuller has done as much to make the dream of homeownership a reality in our country and throughout the world as any living person. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Millard Fuller has literally revolutionized the concept of philanthropy.”
In 1998, Millard received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 1999, he received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards. In October 2005, the Fullers were honored by former President George H. W. Bush and the Points of Light Foundation with a bronze medallion embedded in The Extra Mile national monument in Washington, DC.
Millard had a simple burial and is buried on the grounds of Koinonia Farm in Georgia.
It was truly a blessing to know and work with such a dedicated man.
(I was privileged and honored to be the founding president of the Louisville, Kentucky chapter of Habitat for Humanity)
(Thanks to several online resources for biographical information included in this article).
Please feel free to leave comments on this site. Those comments posted through the button on this page will be posted if appropriate. Comments sent directly to me are welcome and I will respond, but they will not be posted. Also please forward this link to others who might be interested in this blog. To receive notification of future posts, please click on the “follow” button along the side of this page or write to missionaryjournalist@gmail.com. If you no longer wish to receive these articles please let me know at that same email address.
kensintrospect 