President Jimmy Cater with Jim Killoran
By Dan Murphy
As Westchester County lowered its flags to half-mast to honor our 39th President Jimmy Carter, who passed away at his home in Plains, Georgia, on December 29 at the age of 100, Westchester residents have come forward with fond members of the longest living President in American history.
One person who we always connected with President Carter was Jim Killoran. Killoran, now CEO of the Fuller Center for Housing of Greater NYC, met President Carter five times during Killoran’s many years with Habitat for Humanity.
I first met Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter in Los Angeles, during a build blitz. We built 21 houses in LA in one week. President Carter was diligent, a hard worker, who was committed to getting the job done. He pushed all of us.”
“I didn’t agree with all of his priorities, but his faith should be a witness to us all. A mustard seed can take any person and change the world,”
The man who got Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter to build houses through Habitat for Humanity was Millard Fuller. Fuller founded Habitat and Killoran worked under Fuller.
In 2008, a disagreement resulted in Millard and Linda Fuller being removed from the Board of Habitat. Shortly after that the Fuller’s founded The Fuller Center for Housing, the group that Killoran joined in 2018.
Killoran met President Carter at a Bible study in Georgia with Fuller and two more times at the funeral for Fuller and the 10th anniversary of his passing.
“I have been to the Carter center in Georgia and to his childhood home in Plains Georgia. He was a graduate of the Naval Academy.”
“Especially during this time of Christmas and Chanukah, we should take President Carter’s example as a Clarion call to build houses. Here in Westchester, the dream of owning a home is slipping away from too many young people who are leaving.
“I’m still here building houses for Veterans with interest free loans and repairing houses for our older residents who also need help. That would be the best way to honor President Carter, put on some gloves and help us build,” said Killoran, whose work in Westchester building affordable houses can be found at https://www.facebook.com/fullercenterny.
The Fuller Center wrote a wonderful remembrance of President Carter. Titled, Former President Jimmy Carter “was a Christian in the best sense of the word” https://fullercenter.org/former-president-jimmy-carter/?
Here are some excerpts, “When former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn returned to their hometown of Plains, Georgia in 1981 after losing the White House to Ronald Reagan, their intention was to decompress, get their post-campaign finances in order and for the newest ex-president to write a book.
“He also returned to teaching Sunday school at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where a steady stream of people associated with a then-fledgling affordable housing nonprofit called Habitat for Humanity — headquartered about 10 miles away in Americus, Georgia — began showing up to hear him teach.
The leader of that nonprofit was a man named Millard Fuller.
“The first time we heard about Millard, I was still in the White House, and he wrote a very ugly editorial about Rosalynn and me not helping with Habitat,” Carter recalled with a laugh in 2019 at Koinonia Farm during an event marking the 10th anniversary of Fuller’s homegoing.
Carter decided it was time to hear Millard and Linda Fuller out, so he and Rosalynn invited them to their Plains home to hear more about the movement. The now former president, though, warned his wife that this was just a listening session — nothing more.
“I told Rosalynn ahead of time, ‘Don’t agree to anything! We’ve got all we can do already,’” Carter recalled in 2009 at The Fuller Center for Housing’s inaugural Millard Fuller Legacy Build in Lanett, Alabama.
Sure enough, Millard came armed with a long list of things he wanted the Carters to do. It was vintage Millard Fuller — convinced that he could accomplish anything if only he could get in front of people who cared and people who could appreciate his passion and his vision. Like most others whom Millard got in front of, the Carters were roped completely into the mission — and they agreed to every single item on Millard’s list.
“They came into our house, and in half an hour we’d agreed to work for Millard Fuller,” Carter said with a laugh. “I thought it was the worst thing that could happen, but it turned out to be the best thing. … From then on, our life was changed. It changed my and Rosalynn’s life for the better.”
Carter said Millard Fuller’s “Theology of the Hammer” led to an epiphany for him — one that changed the course of his life.
“That bridging from going to church and taking somebody and demonstrating what Christ told us to do, it’s a very difficult thing to tie together,” Carter once said. “But Millard Fuller taught me how it could be done, and, for that, I am very grateful to him.”
“Millard and I are grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him and witness his unwavering commitment by being the ‘hands and feet’ of Jesus Christ in our needy world,” said Linda Fuller, who co-founded both Habitat for Humanity and The Fuller Center for Housing. “President Carter’s stellar leadership and passion have made a lasting impact on both Habitat and The Fuller Center for Housing and the partnering families. His dedication to building homes for families and communities in need continues to inspire us to this day. We are grateful for his partnership, his friendship, and his example of selfless service to others.”
It is nearly impossible to overstate the impact that the Carters’ involvement had in turning Habitat for Humanity into a household name and lifting the affordable housing movement to new heights. While Millard Fuller preached the Theology of the Hammer as a way to spread the Gospel by putting faith into action, President Carter put one of the world’s most recognizable faces upon that philosophy and literally illustrated it — hammer in hand well into his 90s, even after undergoing brain surgery.
“It’s always been his faith that impressed me most,” said Chris Fuller, the first-born son of Millard and Linda who took many groups to hear the president teach Sunday school at Maranatha over the years, especially during his time as a campus minister. “Whatever he did or said, it was his relationship to God that guided everything. And he never let up. He was a Christian in the best sense of the word. Jimmy denied himself, picked up cross daily and followed Jesus just like it commands in Luke 9:23. What a witness and what a life!”
“I saw first-hand how he put his faith in action, got muddy and sweaty just like everyone else, and sparked those projects to success,” Fuller said,” end of Fuller story.
Most of the media mention Habitat for Humanity in President Carter’s obituary, and rightfully so. But the story continued with the Fuller Center for Housing and the man who pushed Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter to service, Millard Fillmore.
In our view, the chain of service extends from President Jimmy Carter to Millard Fillmore to Jim Killoran, who is still serving others by building houses and giving home ownership in the most expensive county in the USA. God Bless Jimmy Carter and consider volunteering or donating to Killoran and the Fuller Center for Housing. And the best way to honor Jimmy Carter would be to spend a day or two volunteering with Killoran or making a donation.
://www.facebook.com/fullercenterny.
