‘He made a little speech and he said, ‘All right, let’s get to work’’

EASTPOINTE — Eastpointe City Councilman Harvey Curley said that when he met former President Jimmy Carter, he wasn’t what he was expecting.

“(Habitat for Humanity) said President Carter is going to be here Wednesday morning, so we’re all standing outside, and of course we don’t know any better: We think he’s going to come in a big black limousine with guards and all,” Curley said, “but here he comes down the road in a golf cart.”

Curley said Carter showed up wearing a cap and an orange bandana, shook hands with the volunteers, and got to work.

“He made a little speech and he said, ‘All right, let’s get to work,’” Curley said.

The encounter happened in 2005, when Curley, along with 34 other volunteers from the Michigan Baptist Church and even more from the Detroit area, worked with Macomb County Habitat for Humanity to build homes in Detroit, west of Woodward Avenue. While more than 30 homes were built at the time, only one was built by the volunteers from the church, Curley said.

Carter, who served as President of the United States from 1977 to 1981, died Dec. 29, 2024. He was 100 years old.

Accompanying Carter in 2005 in Detroit was his wife, Rosalynn, and his daughter, Amy, whom Curley said worked to lay the floor in the kitchen of the home.

During his interactions with Carter and his family, Curley said, they never talked politics. Instead, between painting and installing doorframes, he asked Carter how it felt to be teaching Sunday school at his old church, and about his peanut farm.

Curley said Carter worked just as hard as the rest of the volunteers.

“Christ, he worked hard — I’m not kidding you,” Curley said. “He built that (doorframe), then he did the other frames in the other bedrooms.”

Curley said Carter told him he still loved the church and teaching Sunday school. Carter was there Wednesday and Thursday, Curley said, and before he left, he visited each of the owners of the new homes.

“Late Thursday afternoon, he went around to all 35 houses and gave the new owners a Bible, and said goodbye to us. We all said goodbye to him, and that was that,” Curley said.

Two years ago, Curley said, he and his wife drove by the homes.

“(My wife) and I drove over there on the west side of town about two years ago, and all 34 houses are still standing perfectly. There’s no vacant houses, no houses torn apart,” Curley said. “They’re just like they were the first day that we were there.”

In a statement posted on its website, Habitat for Humanity referred to Carter as “a champion for affordable and decent housing.”

According to the statement, Carter and his family began volunteering with the organization in March of 1984. They continued to volunteer until 2019, and Carter served on the organization’s board of directors from 1984 until 1987.

The statement said Carter and his family inspired more than 108,000 volunteers across the United States and in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,447 homes.

“We are grateful for the incredible impact the Carters have had on Habitat and on the families who have benefited from their shining example,” Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International, said in the statement. “The Carters put Habitat for Humanity on the map, and their legacy lives on in every family we serve around the world.”

Curley said he still feels honored to have been a part of something Carter was involved in.

“Was he the best president we ever had? That’s debatable,” Curley said. “He didn’t stop. You know, most presidents, they sit back and relax, which is OK if that’s what they want to do, but he didn’t. He didn’t stop. He wanted to reach 100, and he did.

“So, yeah, that’s my story,” Curley said.