Millard Fuller, co-founder and long time hands-on manager of Habitat for Humanity, died today. He was 74.
From its beginning in 1976, headquartered in a tiny gray frame house that doubled as Fuller’s law office, Habitat grew to a worldwide network that has provided shelter to more than 1.5 million people.
Habitat home buyers are required to work on their own houses, investing what the Fullers called “sweat equity.”
Preaching the “theology of the hammer,” Fuller built an army of volunteers that included former U.S. presidents, other world leaders and Hollywood celebrities.
One of Habitat’s highest-profile volunteers, former President Jimmy Carter, called Fuller “one of the most extraordinary people I have ever known.”
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Jeff Snider, executive vice president of Habitat during the early ’90s, recalled Fuller as a man driven by his commitment to the destitute. Once, Snider said he suggested setting aside some of the money Fuller raised.
“He had one and only one response, which was, ‘The poor, Jeff, need the money now,'” he said. “So we ran the place full tilt, on the edge all the time, and it was stressful — but he was right.”
In another life, I spent a decent amount of time working with community service programs in Americus, Georgia, and I had a couple of chances to meet with Mr. Fuller.   He was one of those people you remember, and I do so fondly.  I was terribly disappointed to read, in the obituary, that he did not always live up to my expectations of him, but that doesn’t change the incredible work that Habitat for Humanity has done in the US.  Habitat is head-and-shoulders above the rest of the field as the best example of the positives that faith-based initiatives can offer.  Mr. Fuller deserves remembrance and thanks for that.