Support builds for ousted Habitat founder.

By Mark Bixler, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Feb. 4--Stunned Habitat for Humanity volunteers and staffers nationwide are scrambling to support Millard Fuller, who was the organization's president until board members fired him this week.

Fuller's supporters have sent petitions to most of 1,700 affiliates in the United States to defend the man who founded Habitat for Humanity in 1976 and transformed the South Georgia charity into an international organization that builds homes for the poor in 100 nations.

Those supporters have collected hundreds of names on a hastily constructed Web site (www.habitatpartners-unite.com) and plan to briefly lay down their hammers Saturday to show their concern.

Habitat's interim chief executive, Paul Leonard, hinted through a spokesman Thursday in Americus that Fuller and his wife, Linda, who was also fired, could be reinstated.

"I cannot predict the future, but I know who holds the future --- that is the God who …