[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 7, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E283]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO D.M. MILLER

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 7, 2017

  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, one of the finest men I have 
ever known, Mr. D.M. Miller, was the subject of a lengthy article in 
the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
  The article told of his 48 years in education in my hometown of 
Knoxville, Tennessee.
  Mr. Miller touched thousands of lives in good and positive ways 
during his career as a teacher, coach, principal, administrator, and 
school board member.
  This country is in a better place today because of the life and 
service of D.M. Miller.
  I include in the Record, the story about Mr. Miller in the Knoxville 
News-Sentinel from March 2, 2017.

            [From The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Mar. 2, 2017]

                        (By Rebecca D. Williams)

       You might say D.M. Miller of Knoxville, 91, a longtime 
     educator and coach, was in school most of his life.
       ``I remember seeing my first basketball game, at South 
     Harriman School, where my aunt was playing. I was 6 or 7 
     years old,'' he said.
       ``I was born in Roane County on Oct. 22, 1925. My parents 
     were Ben and Stella Schubert Miller. My dad had a fourth-
     grade education and my mom had a fifth,'' he said.
       By the time he was 10, the family moved to Knoxville and 
     lived in Lonsdale. ``This was during the (Great) Depression, 
     and everybody was poor. My dad was a machinist, a motor 
     mechanic, an electrician and a carpenter. He was without work 
     at times,'' Miller said.
       When he was a student at Lonsdale Elementary School, Miller 
     remembers the marching band from Rule High School going on 
     ``strike,'' and marching around Lonsdale, to protest the fact 
     that Rule only had 10 grades. The kids wanted 12 grades so 
     they wouldn't have to walk to Knox High School, Miller said.
       Rule High School had 12 grades by the time Miller got 
     there. He lettered in basketball, track and baseball, and was 
     captain of the football team and vice president of his senior 
     class in 1944. Shortly after graduation, Miller joined the 
     U.S. Navy, during World War II.
       ``Everybody wanted to join up,'' he said. ``My mom wouldn't 
     let me drop out of high school to go in. I graduated from 
     Rule High School on a Friday and went right in the Navy, a 
     boatswain's mate.''
       Miller served on the U.S.S. Gosper, an amphibious invasion 
     and casualty evacuation ship in the Pacific. The ship was 
     part of the Okinawa invasion. ``There were four of us boys 
     from Rule High School over there, and two of them got killed 
     at Okinawa. We thought we were going to invade Japan, but 
     thank goodness (the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb) and the war 
     ended,'' he said.
       ``Then, they sent us to Corregidor (Philippines), and we 
     picked up 2,700 American, Canadian and British prisoners of 
     war. None of them weighed a hundred pounds. They were 
     skeletons,'' he remembered.
       After the war, Miller returned to Tennessee and enrolled in 
     Maryville College on the G.I. Bill, where he played football 
     and majored in education. ``All the veterans had come back 
     from the war, and we had a pretty good ball club,'' he said. 
     ``I played on an undefeated team and in the Tangerine Bowl, a 
     forerunner of the Citrus Bowl, in 1946.''
       As a senior, he met Viola ``Vi'' Marshall, at a dance. ``I 
     saw her dancing and cut in,'' he said. ``We started going 
     together and got married June 2, 1952.''
       In 1950, Miller was hired back at his alma mater, Rule High 
     School, as an assistant coach of several sports and teacher 
     of math, science and health. He eventually became the head 
     football coach of the ``Golden Bears.''
       When the drafting teacher died unexpectedly on a Friday, 
     Miller was asked to take over his class. He had only had one 
     class in drafting in high school. ``I studied all weekend to 
     get ready,'' he said. ``I taught on Monday.''
       Miller went back to the University of Tennessee at night 
     for a master's degree in administration and became assistant 
     principal of Rule High School for four years, and then 
     principal from 1965 through 1975. It was a time of racial 
     integration of the schools.
       ``We had on one side of us Lonsdale Homes, and on the other 
     side was College Homes. And in between there was Western 
     Heights, the largest low-income housing project in the area. 
     So we started integrating in 1970. I enrolled 1,625 kids in a 
     school that would hold 1,000. Eight hundred were black. We 
     had the Black Panthers on campus; we had to run them out. It 
     was not easy. I broke up the first fight,'' he said.
       Discipline back then involved a ``long paddle,'' Miller 
     said. ``Our kids were used to it. Mamas would call me and 
     say, `Handle it.' You have to be fair and firm and 
     consistent. There's no in-between,'' he said.
       After being principal, Miller was asked to work in the 
     Knoxville City Schools administration building as the 
     administrative assistant to the superintendent. He also 
     served on the control board of the Tennessee Secondary School 
     Athletic Association for nine years, during which time he 
     helped TSSAA build an office in Hermitage, reclassify 
     schools, and implement Title IX. He was inducted into its 
     Hall of Fame as an administrator in 1994.
       Miller retired after almost 35 years in the city school 
     system, and was elected to the Knoxville City School Board in 
     1986. The city and county schools merged in 1987, and Miller 
     was elected to the consolidated board for his second term. 
     ``I'm the only man to have served on both,'' he said.
       The Millers had three children, a daughter in 1952, and two 
     sons. Even though he was an educator, Miller's daughter could 
     not go to public schools.
       ``Our daughter, Elizabeth, we call her Libby, was born 
     handicapped. They told us we should put her in an 
     institution. We just couldn't bear to let her go, so we 
     raised her.
       ``The (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) hadn't 
     come into effect yet. So she never had any education. We 
     couldn't get her in a regular school. Her speech was a 
     problem. We had her at every speech clinic, and we had her to 
     doctor after doctor, but she never went to school,'' he said.
       Libby Miller is 64 today. She lives with the Millers and 
     attends the Sertoma Center each day for adults with 
     intellectual disabilities.
       In retirement, Miller has been very active in his church, 
     New Hope Presbyterian. And Miller still keeps in touch with 
     other students from Rule High School, which closed in 1991. 
     In 2015, the Rule Alumni honored Miller with a ``Greatest 
     Among Us'' Award.
       ``I counted it up one time, and I've been in education 
     about 48 years,'' he said. ``Given my mom and dad's 
     education, it's a miracle.

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