Community Renewal loses a true friend;
Our world loses a true hero

For release: Feb. 3, 2009 

Community Renewal lost a dear friend today and our nation lost one of its most inspiring, most unselfish leaders. Millard Fuller - the founder of Habitat for Humanity and more recently the founder and president of The Fuller Center for Housing - died early Tuesday morning in a Georgia hospital. He was 74.

Millard, a longtime friend of Community Renewal founder Mack McCarter, entered into a partnership with Community Renewal soon after Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005. The "Building on Higher Ground" initiative has since built 38 houses in Shreveport's Allendale neighborhood for hurricane evacuees and local residents. (The photo of Millard on the left was taken during the 2008 Blitz Build in Shreveport.)

President Jimmy Carter called Millard "one of the most extraordinary people I have ever known." We couldn't agree more. Millard had such an enthusiastic passion for helping others that when he said we could eliminate poverty housing in Shreveport, we believed it. Please join with us in honoring Millard's legacy by continuing the life-changing work of bringing renewal and quality, affordable housing to all of our neighborhoods.

Millard Fuller was the founder and former president of Habitat for Humanity International. His 29-year leadership, beginning in 1976, forged Habitat into a worldwide Christian housing ministry, building 200,000 homes with projects in 100 countries. Millard spent decades traveling and speaking worldwide, and earned international recognition for his work advocating decent, affordable housing for all. In September 1996, former President Bill Clinton awarded Fuller the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Shortly after Fuller’s death, Former President Jimmy Carter, who worked alongside Millard on many projects, issued a statement in which he called Millard “one of the most extraordinary people I have ever known. He used his remarkable gifts as an entrepreneur for the benefit of millions of needy people around the world by providing them with decent housing,” Carter said in the statement. “As the founder of Habitat for Humanity and later the Fuller Center, he was an inspiration to me, other members of our family and an untold number of volunteers who worked side-by-side under his leadership.”

From humble beginnings in Alabama, Millard Fuller rose to become a young, self-made millionaire. A graduate of Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., and the University of Alabama Law School in Tuscaloosa, he and a college friend began a marketing firm while still in school. Fuller’s business expertise and entrepreneurial drive made him a millionaire at age 29. But as the business prospered, his health, integrity and marriage suffered.

These crises prompted Fuller to re-evaluate his values and direction. After he renewed his marriage and committed his life to Christ, the Fullers then took a drastic step: They decided to sell all of their possessions, give the money to the poor and begin searching for a new focus for their lives. This search led them to Koinonia Farm, a Christian community located near Americus, Ga., where people were looking for practical ways to apply Christ’s teachings.

In 1973, Fuller moved to Africa with his wife and four children to test this housing model. The housing project they began in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) was so successful that Fuller became convinced the model could be expanded and applied all over the world.

Upon his return to the United States in 1976, Fuller met with a group of close associates. They decided to create an independent, non-profit organization that would apply this new housing model, and Habitat for Humanity was born.

Millard is survived by his wife, Linda, and four children.

For more information, visit www.fullercenter.org.