“He was an extraordinary man,” said Bill Scott, president of the Chattahoochee Fuller Center project, an effort to build houses in Fuller’s native Lanett, Ala., as well as Valley, Ala., and West Point.
Fuller, who co-founded Habitat for Humanity, started the Fuller Center for Housing in 2006. Both organizations have built hundreds of thousands of houses for low-income families.
“It shows what one person can do to change the world,” Scott said.
Fuller, 74, died about 3 a.m. Tuesday in a hospital emergency room in Americus. News spread quickly later that morning through West Point and LaGrange, where Fuller last visited in 2003 during the Jimmy Carter Work Project, a 22-house blitz build.
Susan Ferguson, who co-chaired the 2003 event, perhaps has the longest history with Fuller of anyone in LaGrange. She was his first paid secretary at his Americus law office while she was still in college.
“He was an amazing man,” Ferguson said. “I know he’s bursting the gates of heaven wide open. He leaves a phenomenal void.”
Ricky Wolfe, who had just founded DASH for LaGrange before the 2003 build, credits Fuller with his own desire to tackle poverty housing. Wolfe said he first took his family to hear Fuller speak at a Woodbury church in 1999, then wound up going on a build with Fuller and Habitat for Humanity in 2000. That trip helped plant the seed for the 2003 build, he said.
“He really opened my eyes to the world of poverty housing,” Wolfe said. “If I hadn’t met him, I wouldn’t have worked (to set up DASH) like I did.”
Walter Hendrix, who was executive director of Troup-Chambers County Habitat for Humanity, said it was Fuller who encouraged him to join the organization. The two met in 1979 when Hendrix was a Charlottte, N.C., developer and Fuller - and Habitat for Humanity - came to ask for money to sponsor a house build.
Hendrix gave him the money - and wound up joining the Habitat organization after he retired in 1988. He worked with Habitats in Greenville, S.C., and Ocala, Fla., before coming to LaGrange. Hendrix eventually was executive director of DASH for LaGrange before moving back to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. He now works for Fannie Mae in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
Hendrix says he always stayed in touch with Fuller, however, and had even talked to him as late as last week.
“He stayed a good friend for a long time,” Hendrix said.
Wolfe said Fuller hit his own “valley” in life in 2005 when he was ousted from Habitat for Humanity, but quickly regrouped to form the Fuller Center for Housing.
“He’s done some marvelous work,” Wolfe said. “His attitude was always infectious, he wouldn’t allow anyone to be negative. He’s one of those rare people you meet in life. He really believed poverty housing was God’s mission for him and he worked consistently on it until the day he died. Not everyone can say that.”
Hendrix, like Wolfe, marveled not only at Fuller’s enthusiasm for the job but his skill at sharing that enthusiasm.
“He had a great way of articulating his vision that a lot of people don’t have,” Hendrix said.
Steven Brown, current executive director of Habitat for Humanity, said the organization would “continue to build on and celebrate his legacy.”
“In my opinion, he was one of the true giants of the 20th century,” Brown said.
Drew Ferguson IV, mayor of West Point, said Fuller would be “dearly missed.” The Fuller Center for Housing has built nearly a dozen homes in West Point alone.
“His work in West Point not only helped those in need, but motivated an entire community to advance the human condition,” he said. “I am thankful to have had an opportunity to be involved with a remarkable Christian leader. I am confident that Millard’s vision will continue long into the future.”
The Chattahoochee Fuller Center already was making plans for a blitz build to honor Millard and Linda Fuller’s 50th wedding anniversary this summer. Fuller Center organizations around the world will build 100 houses the week of Aug. 30 to Sept. 4.
Chattahoochee Fuller Center spokeswoman Lynda Spofford said Millard Fuller had found out Monday that former President Jimmy Carter, his partner at Habitat, would be participating in the anniversary blitz.
“He was on cloud nine,” she said.
It would have been the first time the two would have worked together on a build since Fuller left Habitat.
“That was a big step toward healing for him,” she said.
Fuller, who is survived by his wife and four children, will be buried today at Koinonia Farm in Americus, the interracial farm that where the vision for Habitat for Humanity was born. A memorial service will be held later and is being planned by the family.
“We are truly overwhelmed with the love and support from family, friends and supporters of my father’s work from all over the country and the world,” the Fuller’s son, Chris, said on the organization’s Web site Tuesday. “My mother, sisters and our entire family are extremely grateful for your prayers and acts of kindness. Your love and admiration for Dad helps to ease our grief. Despite the loss of a beloved husband, father and grandfather, our spirits are high. We know that Dad is in heaven now, and we will celebrate his life’s accomplishments and continue to carry out his vision.”
“In lieu of flowers, the Fuller family hopes that you will honor Dad by signing the guest book on this Web site (www.fullercenter.org), making a donation to support the work of The Fuller Center, volunteering with your local Fuller Center or Habitat for Humanity partner, or spreading the word about the need to eliminate poverty housing, a condition which affects over 1 billion people around the world. Dad never gave up, and would not want you to, either.”
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