[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3742-3744]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO MILLARD FULLER

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to pay tribute 
to a great American who we lost earlier this month.
  Millard Fuller, the founder and former president of Habitat for 
Humanity, was a personal friend to me and many Members of Congress. 
Many of us worked closely with Millard Fuller, particularly in the last 
15 years of his extraordinary leadership.
  I wish to take a minute today to pay tribute to Millard and his 
family--his wife Linda, his son Christopher, his daughters Kim, Faith 
and Georgia and his nine grandchildren. He has left behind these loved 
ones who will carry on his important work. Linda was a cofounder of 
Habitat for Humanity, and a driving force in the creation of this 
organization that has touched the lives of literally millions of people 
around the world.
  When I think of where Millard Fuller died unexpectedly earlier this 
month, near the small town of Americus, GA, I cannot help but be 
reminded of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the most 
inspiring documents ever written. This declaration reminds us that when 
we speak about human rights, we must remember that the recognition of 
these rights begins in small places close to home, places so small that 
they can't necessarily be seen on maps. It is in these small places 
that people long for dignity and respect.
  Sometimes in the Senate, we get carried away with grand visions of 
universal rights and broad, sweeping policies to protect these rights. 
But when you get right down to it, our visions are carried out in our 
own neighborhoods, in our own courthouses and in very small places like 
Americus, GA.
  By the age of 29, Millard Fuller had made his first million dollars. 
He was a man with a great mind and extraordinary leadership abilities, 
who could have made a great fortune for his wife, his children and 
himself. But instead, with his wife's urging, Millard Fuller and Linda 
decided to take the multiple talents God had given them and refocus 
their lives on Christian service. They set their hearts on making a 
difference in the world, and the result was an organization that is one 
of the greatest nonprofits I have come to know.
  In 1968, Millard Fuller and Linda began a Christian ministry on a 
farm in southwest Georgia where they built decent housing for low-
income families using volunteer labor and donations. This concept was 
expanded into what is now Habitat for Humanity International and the 
Fuller Center for Housing. By 1981, Habitat had affiliates in 14 
States, and was carrying out its mission to build homes with volunteer 
labor, ensuring that these homes were affordable to the poor and those 
of modest means.
  Many Senators have commented privately and publicly about his 
extraordinary organization, and President Carter once remarked that 
Millard Fuller was one of the greatest talents he had ever known--
serious words coming from a President. President Carter was a personal 
friend of Millard Fuller, and in 1984, he became a Habitat volunteer, 
giving his name and resources to Millard Fuller's organization. 
President and Mrs. Carter became the faces of Habitat for Humanity, and 
would attract thousands of people to volunteer during the Jimmy Carter 
Work Project, an annual week-long effort to build Habitat homes all 
over the world. By 1992, Habitat had a presence in 92 nations.
  I was very fortunate to have met Millard Fuller. He was an 
inspiration to me and, as I have said, to many Senators. Many of us 
come into our young adulthood and say we want to make a difference in 
the world, and we all try in our various ways. Many of us never quite 
accomplish that. But Millard Fuller did. He had an impact on the world, 
and the world will remember his life and his vision. The world will 
remember that in this great land of wealth and opportunity, Millard 
Fuller thought it was shameful that people were living without decency 
and respect.
  He said it is not what Jesus would want. It is not what the Bible 
teaches. It is not what those of the Christian faith believe. He built 
Habitat on a simple principle that the poor are not lazy, but very 
industrious--that if the poor were given a chance, they could 
accomplish a great deal.
  In order to occupy a Habitat house, the family who is going to live 
there gets to build the home with their neighbors, with the kind of 
old-fashioned, rock-ribbed community values of pitching in, building a 
home, and building upon that solid foundation.
  Not only was it Millard Fuller's vision to give families a decent 
place to live, he wanted to give them something to own. Owning a home 
paves the way for being able to finance against the equity in that home 
to build a business, to send children to college, and to establish a 
future.
  I want people to know that paying tribute to Millard Fuller is about 
more than just building homes. Millard Fuller's life was about building 
hope, building a future and literally changing the course of life--
creating an upward trajectory for people around the world.
  I don't believe that Millard Fuller knew what an impact he had. I 
only hope we will remember him often. And when we do, as leaders in the 
Senate and the House, as Governors, and in the White House, we will 
recommit ourselves to realizing the simple principles that Millard 
Fuller lived every day.
  After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the devastation that hit the 
gulf coast, Habitat was one of the first organizations on the ground. 
Millard and his wife Linda came to Louisiana and helped us to start 
building on higher ground. They built not just in the New Orleans area 
and along the gulf coast of Mississippi, but also in Shreveport, LA, 
where they joined with a group of local leaders to start new 
organizations that built homes for people in northwest Louisiana.
  I would like to read one personal testimony from Cherie Ashley, who 
is the executive director of Habitat for Humanity in Northwest 
Louisiana. She and her family were beneficiaries of this work. Cherie 
was originally from New Orleans, but the flood waters of Katrina forced 
her out. She fled to Shreveport with her family. She said:

       I was blessed with one of the first of the three homes that 
     was built in Allendale, in Northwest Louisiana. Mr. Fuller 
     was passionate about the work he did and he was passionate 
     about eliminating poverty across this nation. The Fuller 
     Center for Housing and Habitat for Humanity of Northwest 
     Louisiana have provided me and my children the opportunity to 
     regain stability and normalcy after such a life altering 
     event--Hurricane Katrina. I am not just the Executive 
     Director for Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Louisiana, 
     most importantly, I am a proud Habitat homeowner, and that's 
     what God--through Millard Fuller--did for me.

  He most certainly was a man who lived up to God's calling. I believe 
we would do ourselves well to remember him often, to thank Linda and 
his family for the tremendous sacrifice they made, and to honor him by 
continuing his work.
  I ask unanimous consent that his obituaries from the New York Times 
and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

         [From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Feb. 11, 2009]

          Habitat Founder's Gone, But Work Can't Be Forgotten

                          (By Lynda Spofford)

       During a time of renewed optimism yet extreme economic 
     distress, our country is

[[Page 3743]]

     searching for heroes. I can't help but feel we took a big 
     step backward with the death of Millard Fuller last week.
       Like the country he loved, Millard Fuller was a man of 
     great contrasts. Someone once described him as part honey, 
     part jet fuel, and surely that was true.
       Fuller was a highly educated son of the Deep South who made 
     his first million by the time he was 29. A practicing lawyer, 
     Fuller was troubled by racial and economic injustice and 
     worked to redress it, first by defending black citizens in 
     Sumter County, and later at Koinonia Farms--an interracial 
     community founded by Clarence Jordan for black people and 
     white people to live and work together in a spirit of 
     partnership. There, Habitat for Humanity was formed.
       As the founder of Habitat, Fuller transformed the concept 
     of philanthropy, mobilizing armies of volunteers to shelter a 
     million people in need. For his vision, inspiration and 
     labor, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
       When his 30-year career as founder and president of Habitat 
     for Humanity ended, Fuller started a similar organization in 
     his own name.
       In the four years it operated, the Fuller Center brought 
     thousands of families and communities together to build 
     decent, affordable homes in places as close as the hurricane-
     ravaged U.S. Gulf coast to as far away as Romania, Nigeria 
     and Sri Lanka. Bringing inspiration to the inner city, Fuller 
     also set about renovating low-income homes in poor condition, 
     asking that the beneficiaries mail modest contributions on a 
     regular basis to keep the ``repair cycle'' going.
       The Fuller Center model rested on the small community 
     efforts often deemed unworthy of the administrative hassle by 
     other, larger organizations. Yet it was precisely these 
     grass-roots programs that had the greatest appeal to Fuller.
       In defiance of those who felt he was too slow to shed his 
     unapologetic Christian bent, Fuller called his new 
     organization a ``housing ministry.'' Ironically, as he held 
     tight to the Christian origins that were part of the founding 
     of the group, his organization embraced people of all 
     backgrounds around the world to achieve his goals--Muslims, 
     Hindus, Christians and Jews--a multi-faith appeal that is 
     increasingly popular today. Fuller knew what many evangelists 
     often forget: that decent shelter should be a matter of 
     conscience and action no matter who you worship or what books 
     you read.
       For those who followed him, he was part deity, part rock 
     star. The people who gathered in churches and town meeting 
     halls to hear him speak understood his almost otherworld 
     appeal. I knew him more as a kindly grandfather and green-
     shade fiduciary who took time to write personal responses to 
     every letter and e-mail he received. A woman from North 
     Dakota always asked Fuller to send a stamp along with his 
     reply so that she could write back. (He did.) Another 
     entrusted his stewardship to everything she owned of value--a 
     pencil, some loose change and her wedding ring--all crammed 
     into a padded envelope.
       In the years he worked, he took a modest salary for 
     himself. In 2008, his annual salary was $21,000 a year (often 
     donating a portion back)--and he insisted on driving a 1992 
     Ford Taurus with a torn roof liner. Yet he quietly paid for 
     college tuition for many bright young people who couldn't 
     afford it, including children he met when their families 
     received a new Habitat house. He did this quietly and without 
     fanfare.
       As I read the news, I can't help but note the irony of the 
     hype and attention we bestow upon our celebrities and 
     athletic champions, society's heroes. I watch the television 
     at night to find that even reputable news organizations are 
     wasting time on Jessica Simpson's high-waisted jeans and 
     other trivial Hollywood gossip. I wonder how many other 
     Millard Fullers are working in the trenches we ignore while 
     glorifying others with far less notable accomplishments.
       Last week, our country lost a true hero. There was no 
     halftime show, no parade, no costumed dancers. He was buried 
     in a plain wooden shipping crate and laid to rest in a pecan 
     orchard without a headstone.
       I hope the world remembers.
                                  ____


                [From the New York Times, Feb. 4, 2009]

     Millard Fuller, 74, Who Founded Habitat for Humanity, Is Dead

                          (By Douglas Martin)

       Millard Fuller, who at 29 walked away from his life as a 
     successful businessman to devote himself to the poor, 
     eventually starting Habitat for Humanity International, which 
     spread what he called ``the theology of the hammer'' by 
     building more than 300,000 homes worldwide, died Tuesday near 
     Americus, Ga. He was 74.
       His brother, Doyle, said Mr. Fuller became ill with a 
     severe headache and chest pains and was taken to a hospital 
     in Americus, his hometown. He died in an ambulance on the way 
     to a larger hospital in Albany, Ga. Doyle Fuller said the 
     cause had not been determined, but may have been an aneurysm.
       Propelled by his strong Christian principles, Millard 
     Fuller used Habitat to develop a system of using donated 
     money and material, and voluntary labor, to build homes for 
     low-income families. The homes are sold without profit and 
     buyers pay no interest. Buyers are required to help build 
     their houses, contributing what Mr. Fuller called sweat 
     equity.
       More than a million people live in the homes, which are in 
     more than 100 countries. There are 180 in New York City, 
     including some that former President Jimmy Carter, a longtime 
     Habitat supporter and volunteer, personally helped construct. 
     Mr. Carter said of him on Tuesday that ``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.''
       Former President Bill Clinton has also volunteered on 
     Habitat projects. When he presented Mr. Fuller the 
     Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996, he said, ``I don't 
     think it's an exaggeration to say that Millard Fuller has 
     literally revolutionized the concept of philanthropy.''
       Mr. Fuller said his inspiration came from the Bible, 
     starting with the injunction in Exodus 22:25 against charging 
     interest to the poor. He spoke of the ``economics of Jesus'' 
     and insisted that providing shelter to all was ``a matter of 
     conscience.'' Christianity Today in 1999 called him ``God's 
     contractor.''
       His skills included fund-raising finesse, an exuberant 
     speaking style and a talent for making use of the news media. 
     In 1986, The Chicago Tribune quoted him asking a publicity 
     man about a woman in front of her ramshackle apartment, 
     ``Don't you think that'd make some great pictures to show her 
     in that rat-infested place?''
       The article later said Mr. Fuller did not expect to house 
     the world. ``Instead,'' it said, ``he sees Habitat as a 
     hammer that can drive the image of a woman in a rat-infested 
     apartment as deep into the mind of America as the image of an 
     African child with a distended stomach.''
       Mr. Fuller liked to tell and re-tell the stories of his 
     earliest houses. One man had moved from a leaky shack into a 
     new house.
       ``When it rains, I love to sit by the window and see it 
     raining outside,'' one new homeowner said, ``and it ain't 
     raining on me!''
       Another new resident saw his new home as a literal 
     resurrection. ``Being in this house is like we were dead and 
     buried, and got dug up!'' she said.
       In 2005, a woman employed by Habitat accused Mr. Fuller of 
     verbally and physically harassing her, a widely publicized 
     charge that an investigation by the organization did not 
     prove. But he and a new generation of Habitat board members 
     were disagreeing on organizational and other issues, and he 
     and his wife agreed to resign.
       Mr. Fuller started a new organization called the Fuller 
     Center for Housing. It is active in 24 states and 14 foreign 
     countries.
       Millard Dean Fuller was born on Jan. 3, 1935, in Lanett, 
     Ala., then a small cotton-mill town. His mother died when he 
     was 3, and his father remarried. Millard's business career 
     began at 6 when his father gave him a pig. He fattened it up 
     and sold it for $11. Soon he was buying and selling more 
     pigs, then rabbits and chickens as well. He dabbled in 
     selling worms and minnows to fishermen.
       When he was 10, his father acquired 400 acres of farmland, 
     and Mr. Fuller sold his small animals to raise cattle. He 
     remembered helping his father repair a tiny, ramshackle shack 
     that an elderly couple had inhabited on the property. He was 
     thrilled to see their joy when the work was complete.
       Mr. Fuller went to Auburn University, running 
     unsuccessfully for student body president, and in 1956 was a 
     delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He 
     graduated from Auburn with a degree in economics in 1957 and 
     entered the University of Alabama School of Law.
       He and Morris S. Dees Jr., another law student, decided to 
     go into business together while in the law school. They set a 
     goal: get rich.
       They built a successful direct-mail operation, published 
     student directories and set up a service to send cakes to 
     students on their birthdays. They also bought dilapidated 
     real estate and refurbished it themselves. They graduated and 
     went into law practice together after Mr. Fuller briefly 
     served in the Army as a lieutenant.
       As law partners, they continued to make money. Selling 
     65,000 locally produced tractor cushions to the Future 
     Farmers of America made $75,000. Producing cookbooks for the 
     Future Homemakers of America did even better, and they became 
     one of the nation's largest cookbook publishers. By 1964, 
     they were millionaires. Mr. Dees went on to help found the 
     Southern Poverty Law Center.
       Mr. Fuller's life changed completely after his wife, the 
     former Linda Caldwell, whom he had married in 1959, 
     threatened to leave him. She was frustrated that her busy 
     husband was almost never around, and she had had an affair, 
     their friend Bettie B. Youngs wrote in ``The House That Love 
     Built'' (2007), a joint biography. For the rest of his 
     career, he talked openly about repairing the marriage.
       There was much soul-searching. Finally, the two agreed to 
     start their life anew on Christian principles. Eschewing 
     material things was the first step. Gone were the speedboat, 
     the lakeside cabin, the fancy cars.
       The Fullers went to Koinonia Farm, a Christian community in 
     Georgia, where they planned their future with Clarence 
     Jordan, a Bible scholar and leader there. In 1968, they

[[Page 3744]]

     began building houses for poor people nearby, then went to 
     Zaire in 1973 to start a project that ultimately built 114 
     houses.
       In 1976, a group met in a converted chicken barn at 
     Koinonia Farm and started Habitat for Humanity International. 
     Participants agreed the organization would work through local 
     chapters. They decided to accept government money only for 
     infrastructure improvements like streets and sidewalks.
       Handwritten notes from the meeting stated the group's grand 
     ambition: to build housing for a million low-income people. 
     That goal was reached in August 2005, when home number 
     200,000 was built. Each home houses an average of five 
     people.
       The farm announced plans for a simple public burial service 
     for Mr. Fuller on Wednesday.
       Besides his brother, Doyle, of Montgomery, Ala., and his 
     wife, Mr. Fuller is survived by their son, Christopher, of 
     Macon, Ga.; their daughters, Kim Isakson of Argyle, Tex., 
     Faith Umstattd of Americus, and Georgia Luedi of 
     Jacksonville, Fla.; and nine grandchildren.
       After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Fuller Center built 
     a house in Shreveport, La., for a mother and her daughters, 
     one named Genesis, the other Serenity. Mr. Fuller loved the 
     religious connotations he saw in their names.
       ``What will little Genesis become?'' he asked at the time. 
     ``What will little Serenity become? We don't know, but we 
     know one thing: if we give them a good place to live, they've 
     got a better chance.''

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Arizona is recognized.

                          ____________________