Fairfield Couple Provides the Two 'S'

FAIRFIELD, Conn. — Doing the lord’s work sometimes means stepping out of the pulpit and picking up a hammer for the Rev. Drs. David Johnson Rowe and Alida Ward at Fairfield’s Greenfield Hill Congregational Church.

Sitting in the church rectory where they live, the couple talks passionately about building homes across the world. Between them stretches decades of experience providing shelter for those in need.

“For me, part of the joy with Habitat for Humanity is that once you have built a stock of houses, you start to change a neighborhood,” says Rowe. He has been working with Habitat for Humanity since 1977, one year after the organization built its first home in the United States. He rose to the level of president of Habitat for Humanity International before stepping down in 1991.

Ward works extensively with a similar organization -- the Appalachia Service Project -- located in her native Virginia. Every year she takes a group of mostly teens to Virginia, where they work on repairing homes for some of the nation’s poorest families.

“It isn’t just that you show up and help fix a place,” says Ward. “When people see others helping it makes them want to get involved as well. This year I had a little boy come up to us and say, ‘When I grow up I want to help people too.’ The effect goes well beyond sheetrock and shingles.”

Rowe is documenting his years with Habitat for Humanity in a book due out Oct. 1, “My Habitat for Humanity: The Mostly Good Ol’ Days.” In it he talks about his role with the organization’s growth. The “mostly” part deals with his involvement on the committee investigating sexual harassment accusations levied against Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller in 1990.

Despite stepping down from the presidency in 1991, Rowe says he’ll stay involved with local Habitat for Humanity projects. Ward also shows no signs of slowing her involvement with the Appalachia Service Project. Together, they want to help as many people as they can achieve the most basic of needs.

“I was told once that everyone in the world wants ‘S and S’ -- staples and security. They want staples like corn and rice and they want security like a safe home and the ability to walk outside of their village without being killed,” Rowe says. “There are a lot of people in the world without either ‘S.’”

 

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