Edward W. Mills, 95, Vandalia

Edward W. Mills, 95, of Vandalia, died at 3:00PM, August 30, 2009 at Fayette County Hospital Long Term Care Center.

Visitation will be held at the First Baptist Church of Vandalia, 4 pm to 8 pm Thursday, September 3, 2009 and 1 hour prior to services Friday, September 4, 2009. Funeral services will be held at 10 am Friday, September 4, 2009 at the First Baptist Church of Vandalia. The Reverend Joe Lawson and the Reverend Robert Weaver will be officiating. Burial will be in Fairlawn Cemetery, Vandalia. Hohlt and File Funeral Home, Vandalia, is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Mills was born in Hagarstown, IL, October 15, 1913, the son of Miles E. and Margaret M. (Wasser) Mills. He attended grade schools in Bloomfield, Montana, Brownstown, IL, Altamont, IL, and graduated from Altamont High School. Following graduation from the University of Illinois where he received both his Bachelor of Science and Masters Degrees, Mr. Mills began his teaching career in 1937 in Fayette County at the Sefton Township Union School. Mr. Mills taught science and coached basketball in the Mason High School, Effingham County, from 1938 to 1942. He married Wilmeta Mae Ready October 10, 1942 in St. Charles, MO. She died February 22, 2005.

Mr. Mills was a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving from 1942 – 1946, during WWII. He spent three years as a radio operator and maintainer on the Martin B-26 Bomber and a year as an English instructor for Chinese Army exchange officers. In 1946, Mr. Mills began teaching General Science and Biology in the Vandalia High School, coaching track, intramural sports, and was the assistant football, baseball, and basketball coach for many years. He also served as official score keeper for the VCHS varsity basketball games for 50 years. Following his retirement in 1979, Mr. Mills continued to substitute teach in the Fayette County School System until October 2002, for a total of 65 years of teaching.

Mr. Mills served as a Boy Scout Master, was a member of the Vandalia Police Board, the Evans Library Board, the Evergreen Outreach Board, and the Vandalia Correctional Center Administrative Review Board. He was a volunteer driver for Evergreen Outreach and Meals on Wheels. He was a 50-year member of Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Crawford-Hale American Legion Post # 95, and a member of the Vandalia Lions Club where he served as secretary for over 40 years. In 1992, Mr. Mills was awarded the Lions Club Melvin Jones Fellowship Award. He was also an active member of the Illinois Education Association, the National Education Association, and the Fayette County Teacher Association. Mr. Mills was elected to the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990 and was a charter member of the Vandalia Community High School Hall of Fame.

For many years during the summer months, Mr. Mills managed the Vandalia Park’s Softball League and from 1968 to 1974, he was a National Park Ranger and Naturalist in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming at both the Norris Geyser Basin and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. He later served as the Ramsey Lake State Park Summer Campground Host for several years and supervised Youth Conservation Corps activities within Fayette County.

Mr. Mills lived a life of honor and possessed a great deal of character. He would tell you, and it is true, that in his 95 years, he never once drank or smoked, spoke a curse word, or broke a law. Although officially he spent 65 years teaching in the local schools, his years of teaching extended well beyond those years and those thousand of students in his classroom. His entire life was a lesson for all of us, a lesson in hard work, a lesson in honesty, loyalty, responsibility, kindness, generosity, patience, godliness, and lesson in good values. For many years he had a wooden paddle hanging in his classroom with one word carved into it: THINK. And that is what he did; he encouraged us to think. To think before we speak; to feed our curiosity and to ask questions about the things we knew little of; to think about what matters most to each of us, and to act accordingly; To think about what the right thing to do is; and to think about the consequences of our actions. Even as he resided in the Long Term Care Center, he would occasionally quiz the nursing staff on the physiology of plants and animals. He taught not just by lectures and exams, but by the example he set in his life.

He is survived by his son, Colonel Edward E. Mills, USAF Retired, and his wife Betsy of Westford, MA; daughter Mrs. Linda Weiss of Edwardsville; 5 grandchildren, Chad Mills and wife Debra of Ayer, MA, Amy Mills and husband Roger Fleming of Appleton, ME, Dr. Amanda Weiss of Orlando, FL, Kelly Weiss of Palm Beach Gardens, FL, and Tiffany Seiler and her husband Shane of Alton; 2 great-granddaughters Jamie Mills of Ayer, MA; Lillian Seiler of Alton, IL ; 6 great-grandsons, Jason Mills, Lucas Mills, Jackson Mills, Alexander Mills, Ayer, MA, Miles Fleming & Madden Fleming of Appleton, ME; brother Forrest E. and wife Lorene Mills of Mesquite, TX; several cousins, a nephew, and nieces. He was preceded in death by his wife, parents, two sisters, Laurene Guthrie and Pauline Mills, and son-in-law, Jim Weiss.

The family requests donations be made to the Edward W. Mills Scholarship Fund, C/O First National Bank of Vandalia.