marketing firm while still in school , `` but as his business prospered , his health , integrity and marriage suffered , '' the biography said . `` These crises prompted Fuller to re-evaluate his values and direction . His soul-searching led to reconciliation with his wife and to a renewal of his Christian commitment , '' it said . The Fullers sold all their possessions , gave money to the poor and began searching for a new direction . They found Koinonia Farm , a Christian community near Americus in rural southwest Georgia , the biography said . Along with Koinonia founder Clarence Jordan and a few others , the couple initiated several enterprises , among them a housing ministry that built modest homes on a no-interest , nonprofit basis and made them affordable to low-income families . Homeowner families were expected to use their own labor to help defray costs on their home as well as homes for other families . Money to build homes was placed into a revolving fund , enabling more to be built , according to the biography . In 1973 , the Fullers moved to Africa to test their housing model , the
ATLANTA , Georgia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Millard Fuller , who founded Habitat for Humanity International along with his wife , has died , officials said Tuesday . He was 74 . Millard Fuller appears with President Bush at a Habitat for Humanity event in Tampa , Florida , in 2001 . Fuller died early Tuesday `` after a brief illness , '' said a statement on the Web site of the organization he currently headed , Fuller Center for Housing , in Americus , Georgia . `` Family and friends are mourning the tragic loss of a great servant leader and a genuine heart , '' the statement said . Fuller had suffered from chest congestion for three to four weeks , said Holly Chapman , spokeswoman for the Fuller Center . He died about 3 a.m. en route to a hospital , she said . With his wife , Linda , Fuller founded Habitat for Humanity International in 1976 . The Alabama native rose `` from humble beginnings '' to become a `` young , self-made millionaire , '' according to his biography on Habitat for Humanity 's Web site . He and a college friend began a