By Susan Shinn Turner

For the Salisbury Post

In 1984, the Rev. Tom Ford experienced a different call from parish ministry. When he was the pastor of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Ft. Collins, Colorado, he discerned that he was being led in another direction.

“I was wanting a call where I could be involved in helping the poor and needy,” he said.

The search led him to Koinonia Farm, an intentional Christian farming community in Americus, Georgia. The farm’s motto is “Called to Community in Service.”

Founded in 1942, the farm nearly closed until 1969, when it was revived by its founder, Clarence Jordan, and local businessman Millard Fuller. In 1976, Fuller and his wife left Koinonia to establish Habitat for Humanity.

When Ford visited the farm, he was instructed, “Go see Millard at Habitat.”

In 1986, Ford was hired as Habitat’s first director of development. Shortly after, Fuller persuaded President Carter, a Georgia native, to come on the board of directors. It was a connection the president would keep until his death on Dec. 29, 2024 at 100. He only stopped going to building sites in his mid-90s, Ford said.

The duo hit the ground running as the year 1986 marked the 10th anniversary of Habitat.

The organization launched a bodacious goal: raise $10 million to expand its efforts worldwide. Ford and President Carter became the two major fundraisers.

“He chaired a committee which had movers and shakers from all over the country and all over the world,” Ford noted.

The board wrote a letter on behalf of Carter which then he approved, printed on his personal presidential stationery, and signed by hand.

Carter also chose to whom the letters were sent. Paul Newman sent a check for $25,000. Bob Hope sent a check for $32,000.

“And on and on and on the checks came in,” Ford remembered.

Ultimately, Habitat surpassed that wildly ambitious goal, raising $13 million.

“We could never have done it without President Carter,” Ford said.

Ford stayed with Habitat for 18 months before he sensed another call — this time to work with Lutheran Social Services in Southern California.

But he fondly remembers his Habitat colleague.

“President Carter was very mild and easy-going,” Ford said of his friend. “But he had a tremendous brain. He was one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He was trained as a nuclear engineer. He went to the Naval Academy and did extremely well. He had the highest level of training anyone could possess.”

He said further of the 39th president: “He was stubborn and he was a detail person. He had an off-the-cuff way to think of things that were better than what you could come up with. He loved jokes and stories.”

Ford also got tickled at President Carter, who mowed the church lawn, about three-quarters of a way from his home. He drove the mower there and back — followed by a large van of secret service agents.

“I saw it happen,” he said.

It’s well documented that Carter was deeply religious, teaching Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, from 1981 until 2020.

Carter studied theologians and other Biblical resources, Ford said. “His teaching was like other layman. A pastor could tell this man was unusual. He studied religion as avidly as he studied engineering.”