Times wins 8th consecutive Newspaper of Year title
June 24, 2015
Our Mistake
June 24, 2015
A pioneer in education, enterprising businessman and pragmatic, multi-talented family man. Died at age 82 Wednesday, June 10, 2015, at Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital.
Louis Miller is being remembered by many of the people whose lives he touched as a dignified, scholarly and wise man who achieved a litany of accomplishments in business and education.
But the Ethel, La., native was a true renaissance man – a skilled mechanic, homebuilder and real estate investor.
“A finer gentlemen you would never have met,” said Terrebonne Parish School District Superintendent Philip Martin. “He was always the epitome of class, calm and dignity. He exuded respect for others and you automatically had respect for him.”
Louis, who died at 82 on June 10, 2015, was a war veteran. In 1953, at age 20, he served in Korea.
Upon his return to Louisiana in 1955, Louis was hired to teach at Southdown Elementary, the parish’s lone school for black students. He later rose to assistant principal at the school.
In 1959, Louis married Martina Lucille Chambers while she pursued her master’s degree at Southern University. Together, they raised two daughters – Joaquina Washington and Kimri Miller.
“When I met Louis, I knew he was the person I would marry,” Martina said.
Louis also attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, the latter with plus-30 graduate hours in administration and supervision. He continued graduate studies at Nicholls State, Southeastern Louisiana and Louisiana Tech universities.
Simultaneously a student by night and teacher by day, Louis would eventually serve as director of vocational education and federal programs for Terrebonne schools.
In the mid-1970s, Louis proposed a vocational high school geared toward training teens that were not college-bound with employable skills. With the support of the school board, the parish opened the Terrebonne Career and Technical School on the Houma Airbase.
“He was a driving force for getting that off the ground,” Martin said. “There’s a very strong initiative in the state right now called Jumpstart to focus on preparing kids for careers or college. Mr. Miller did Jumpstart in Terrebonne 40 years ago.”
Louis’s illustrious career in Terrebonne schools ended in 1994 upon his retirement.
Mr. Miller was always, at heart, a doer. Although he was an academic, he was equally at home rebuilding an engine or remodeling a kitchen. It was his element, according to family.
“My dad didn’t believe in buying us new cars,” Kimri Miller said. “He told us that he could ‘make us a car.'”
And that is what he did. He would go to the junkyard, buy a clunker, fix all of the mechanical issues himself and hire someone to repaint the exterior.
“It would be ‘just like new,’ Kimri said. “We all got one like this, children and grandchildren.”
Louis also rebuilt quite a few busses and resold them. That was just one of his many business ventures.
He was president of H&M Enterprises, Woodroffe and Miller Inc., Terrebonne Business and Investment Corporation, Louis Miller Inc., as well as president of the TEA Federal Credit Union Board of Directors.
He also flipped houses and owned rental properties throughout Houma, Raceland and Gray. In fact, he built his family’s home, in which they live to this day, in 1974 with his brother, a contractor who flew from Brooklyn, New York, to help him build it.
“He would leave the school board office, change clothes and work until 10 or 11 at night to complete the structure,” Martina said.
There was always a new investment – a car or a house – to keep Louis busy. He was also an auction aficionado.
“He was always looking for the next deal,” daughter Joaquina Washington said, describing her father as continually hunting for an investment.
He instilled these entrepreneurial values in his granddaughter, Tia, who said Louis inspired her to start an online girl’s boutique named after her daughter, Tailyn.
Louis also instilled his love of education in his children. Both Miller women hold master’s degrees from Southern University, as well as two of his grandchildren. He encouraged them all to study at Southern, which they did.
That makes sense. Louis was a life member of the Southern University Alumni Association, served on the Southern University Board of Supervisors and was founder and advisory board member of the Bayou Jaguar Supporters Inc., where he was president for several years.
Education is the patriarch’s legacy. The majority of his descendants hold or are pursing a degree.
“That’s because of my dad,” Joaquina said. “He always encouraged all of us to strive to do better.”
Louis Miller was a notable education leader in Terrebonne Public School District, enterprising businessman, and talented builder. His proposal to create the Terrebonne Career and Technical High School in the mid-1970s was ahead of its time, with a statewide initiative emulating his concept.
