Dr. Amos Millard

Editor’s Note: Dr. Frank Rice researched and wrote the following on Dr. Amos Millard:

The first classroom building to be added to Northwest's campus after the original constructions was appropriately named for Amos D. Millard, who experienced the college first as a student. He married alum Lorna (Gunnarson, '47).

Dr. Millard remained as an employee for a tenure that eventually lasted 40 years. As the Registrar, he was known immediately to all incoming students. At first, they called him Mister Millard or Brother Millard. Later, he was known as Doctor Millard, having earned his D.Min. from California Graduate School of Theology in 1977. At the end of his tenure, Northwest added the Doctor of Divinity to his name.

Dr. Millard was a stickler for adhering to the policies and programs in the college's catalog and manuals, yet many students thank him for finding solutions to their academic roadblocks when he deemed them deserving and having potential for ministry. His office in those early days lacked the instruments of efficiency, so his notes were often in tiny handwritten scraps, and printed forms were often more picturesque than clear. He crunched numbers by hand until computers finally arrived on the scene.

In faculty meetings and in committees, Dr. Millard was valuable as historian, able to tell how policies had come to be, and the attitudes and characteristics of the college's pioneers. His quiet humor often punctuated discussions, for he was given to puns, often drawn from something in the Scriptures.

The students will remember him also for his spirituality. When leading in prayer, his emotions were always near the surface, as he prayed with quavering voice and tears. To some, he seemed a patriarchal figure right out of Scripture.

Dr. Millard's prodigious memory amazed us all. For years, purely from memory, he introduced the graduates at Commencement by name and home town as they crossed the platform to receive their diplomas. Eventually however, the number of graduates became so large that even he needed a printed roster.

Once the college initiated annual Holy Land Tours, it was usually Dr. Millard who led them and taught the participants about the areas to be visited. With the status of Administrator Emeritus since 1989, he continued to have great interest in Israel and all things Jewish, especially Biblical prophecies concerning Israel in these "last days."