Millard Fuller was a self-made millionaire by the time he was 29, but as he soon found out, fortune and fulfillment are two distinctly different things.
That’s why in the early 1970s the Alabama marketing firm owner traded it all in for a new bottom linein humanity.
An experience as a Christian missionary in Zaire inspired Fuller to found Habitat for Humanity International, an outreach program that offers the dream of home ownership to families who would otherwise be locked out of the prospect of inhabiting a dwelling they could call their own.
Fuller will build on that message Monday, April 19, when he visits Morgantown and West Virginia University. He’ll meet with city and university officials and talk with volunteers from Habitat’s county and WVU chapters.
His visit comes on the heels of a high-profile Habitatcamp-outstaged by WVU ’s Habitat for Humanity chapter two weeks ago, as a way to graphically illustrate the plight of the homeless across the globe.
It’s just a real opportunity for our volunteers to see the man himself,said Chris Haddox, executive director of Mon County Habitat for Humanity, the local chapter that’s built more than 20 homes over the years in and around Morgantown.Mr. Fuller is someone who put his faith and convictions into action, and that’s something all of us can live by.
Faith is the cornerstone of the nonprofit, ecumenical Christian-based organization that builds solid, uncomplicated homes.
Habitat has built more than 150,000 such dwellings, in locales from Morgantown to Malaysia. One of Habitat’s better known volunteers include former president Jimmy Carter, who cemented the organization’s reputation in 1984 when he took part in his first build in New York City.
All work is done by volunteers and the future homeowners themselves. The organization purchases the completed house on behalf of the homeowner, who then assumes the mortgage.
While Fuller is personally driven by his faith, he isn’t preachy in his pronouncement of the core philosophy surrounding his organization. The low-keyed executive speaks in public without notes and lists his accomplishments on a one-page resume.
When I had the goal of making a lot of money I was a hard-charging, creative, entrepreneurial-type person,he said last year as he looked back on his career.I’m still that same kind of person, but I’ve got different goals in life. Now, my goal is to build a house for everybody in the world.
Fuller is set to meet at 2:30 p.m. Monday with Morgantown and WVU officials in the Mountainlair student union. After that, it’s off to a Habitat work site at 4 p.m. on Jersey Avenue in Morgantown’s Jerome Park neighborhood. He’ll speak at 6:30 p.m. that day in First Presbyterian Church, Morgantown.