Diminutive Miller raises stature of SDSU

South Dakota State University might look a lot different if Peggy Miller had been three inches taller.

“When I was about 16, I wanted to be a stewardess, but they turned me down because I was too short,” Miller shared in an interview much earlier in her career. Miller would stretch both her feet and the truth to declare she was 5-foot-2. Her diminutive stature may have kept her out of the airline industry, but it’s not keeping her out of the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

The former SDSU president joined a group of nine other inductees at ceremonies in Chamberlain Sept. 13-14.

Miller, who served as SDSU’s 18^th president from Jan. 1, 1998, to Dec. 31, 2006, became only the third out of the land-grant university’s 20 presidents to be inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, joining Robert Wagner (1998) and Hilton Briggs (1980).

Miller said, “I used to say I was 5-2 because I was 5-1 ½.” The settling bones that come with passing years has Miller now measuring 4-11, but from head to toe, Miller is still filled with passion and enthusiasm for her adopted university.

“You all hired me, and I’ve never regretted it,” Miller said.

In fall 2012, the late historian John Miller wrote the “What Makes a South Dakotan?” The compilation didn’t include a chapter on Peggy Miller (no relation), but he certainly could have because the transplant to the Northern Plains has bonded with the state as well as any West Virginia-born, western Kentucky-raised person could.

Miller’s presidency was her first South Dakota experience.

Roots in Kentucky, Indiana

Peggy Gordon was born May 27, 1937, to Herbert and Mary Ann Gordon. Her father was a general contractor who died of lung disease. Her mother was a nurse who lived until 90. She studied English at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, spent many years in Gary, Indiana, and four years in Akron, Ohio, before spending two years in Washington, D.C. 

She took her bachelor’s diploma to Gary, where she spent five years (1959-64) teaching English at Horace Mann High School.

By this time, Peggy Elliott was a young bride. Her son, Scott, was born Oct. 29, 1964. Late in summer 1965, she got a call from Indiana University Northwest in Gary. It was a relatively new campus that was “desperate” for an English teacher, Miller recalled. The university provided in-home care for her son and later her daughter as well.

She taught freshmen English to primarily first-generation college students on an urban campus. “It was a wonderful experience,” Miller said.

It was the beginning of a 27-year career there, culminating with nine years (1983-92) as chancellor. She left that CEO position to become president of the University of Akron, another urban campus. Then she served as senior fellow (1996) and acting vice president (1997) of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in D.C.

Missed being in university environment

On Jan. 9, 1997, Robert T. Wagner announced he would retire as SDSU president effective Jan. 1, 1998.

Peggy Gordon Elliott, as she was known then, had an office at the DuPont Center in D.C. “working closely with the political side of town and … writing papers that didn’t go anywhere. I missed having students and I missed teaching.” Despite having no South Dakota connections, she made the SDSU opportunity her top priority.

On Oct. 24, 1997, the South Dakota Board of Regents announced Miller as its choice to become SDSU’s next president. She began her duties Jan. 1, 1998, with her inauguration Sept. 19, almost exactly 26 years before her induction to the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

It has been nearly 18 years since she retired as SDSU president, but she didn’t break her South Dakota ties. In retirement, she split time between Volga and Florida, and then moved to Brookings this summer.

Quickly embraced her new state

In his nomination support letter, Tad Perry, former executive director of the Board of Regents, he wrote, “Peggy Miller became a South Dakotan in 1998. She did not just move to South Dakota, she embraced it. She symbolically wrapped herself in the state flag.”

Miller said, “It was the first place I had lived, outside of my hometown, that everybody shared the same values. It’s friendly, nice. I arrived in late December. On one of my first Saturday nights in town, I got a call from someone at the church I go to. ‘It’s going to be stormy tomorrow. Would you like a ride to church?’ People just look out after each other.”

Miller also quickly made herself at home at SDSU.

From Woodbine to Brown Hall

Woodbine Cottage, which was built in 1887 and had served as the president’s home since 1903, became Miller’s new home … briefly. “I was in Woodbine for a little while. The Wagners had cats. It turned out I was allergic to cat dander. I was having really bad coughs. I had to have it cleaned,” Miller said.

SDSU also used the time to make some structural repairs, so Miller spent four months in a dorm room. Yes, a dorm room.

That was Miller’s choosing. “The regents told Mike Reger (vice president of administration) to get me an apartment. I said, ‘I’m not going to live in an apartment. There has to be a dorm room open.’ They put me in apartment in Brown Hall,” which was built in 1960 and housed 400 students as well as having an apartment for campus visitors.

So while Miller didn’t have to share a bedroom or a bathroom, she washed her clothes in the common laundry and, being the outgoing person she is, made a lot of friends.

“It was a wonderful way to be introduced to students. I met so many of them casually. It didn’t interfere with my work. I could walk to my office. I didn’t find it troublesome at all.”

A president living in a dorm room made for a good news story. When word got out, “Somebody called Mike Reger and chewed him out for putting the president in a dorm room. He said, ‘She won’t go anywhere else,’” Miller recalled with a smile.

It gave her more opportunities to experience South Dakota nice. She recalled one night “a storm was coming in and a student called. ‘Would you like me to put your car in the garage at Woodbine?’” the student asked Miller.

Students a focus, not a distraction

She would not just have chance encounters with students. Miller said in an earlier interview, “At the beginning of an academic year, I simply take my calendar and, in green or red, block out a space of time every week, and then I just go where students are. That way I don't ever spend a whole week when I haven't heard from students or interacted with them in some way. It's too easy to get bogged down with the paper that has to be moved out of the president's office, and I think your focus can get off if you aren't in contact with the students. Being with them keeps me centered and is probably far more valuable to me than to them.”

Among those Miller made a relationship with was Amanda Mattingly Mack, a 2005 graduate. “My first interactions with President Miller were when I served as a student senator from the College of Arts and Sciences. She would regularly take time to meet with students, learn about us, and encourage and support us as much as she could.

“I found her to be thoughtful and encouraging, and also understood what a time sacrifice it was for her to meet with us, but that’s who she was. We were just as important to her as the donors and the Board of Regents,” Mack wrote in support of Miller’s hall of fame nomination.

Have flag, will flee

One interaction particularly stood out to Mack.

“Shortly after I was elected Students’ Association president, I approached President Miller with an idea to start a rivalry with NDSU. We would no longer be playing USD in football as they had chosen to stay with Division II athletics. It was a long shot, but those of us in student leadership knew the students needed something to rally around. We needed something to get excited about.

“Of course, she supported us in every way she could. We took a bus ride to the (North Dakota/South Dakota) border April 21, 2004, to declare the start of the greatest rivalry in college football.

“It included a stealthy swiping of the NDSU flag by President Miller, and the rest is history. (ESPN) ‘College GameDay,’ the Dakota Marker (trophy) and two national championships would not be a part of our history, or the state’s economic success, without Peggy’s leadership, steady guidance and unwavering commitment to the students of SDSU and the state of South Dakota,” Mack shared.

When asked about the flag pilfering in a recent interview, Miller proudly declared, “Guilty as charged.”

She recalls the gathering as a “jolly time” with food, performances by both schools’ band and an explanation of how the quartzite markers were used to mark the border of North and South Dakota when the Dakota Territory was divided in 1889.

As for the flag, Miller recalled that Andi Fouberg, a 1999 graduate and current SDSU Alumni Association president and CEO, handed her the flag while she and her husband, Bob Miller, were in their car toward the end of the event. “I held it out the window, waved it and told my husband to gun it,” Miller recalled.

Marks of the Miller presidency

The story captures several points that illustrate the Miller presidency.

• Students were foremost in decisions she made and how she allocated her time. 

• Being the campus CEO didn’t mean fun was a forgotten word, especially when interacting with students. Though she was three times their age, Miller had no problem bonding with students.

• She loved a challenge. Leading SDSU into Division I athletics was chief among them. While the Board of Regents would unanimously support the move, there was plenty of criticism during the three-year process leading up to that December 2004 vote. People questioned the cost and future success while declaring satisfaction with the North Central Conference.

Miller and Athletic Director Fred Oien led the DI effort.

She said, “We had students who could academically be a Division I athlete. The really good ones were going to other states. They were able to do it (play Division I), and nobody was letting them (in South Dakota). I had been at Division I schools, and I knew they could. I was really just doing my job.”

• The Division I move perfectly illustrates a phrase that became her mantra at SDSU, “Oh yes we can.”

V.J. Smith, who served as alumni association director in the Miller era, wrote in his hall of fame letter of recommendation, “There were countless times I attended meetings with Dr. Miller and would hear reasons something couldn’t be done. She would simply smile and say, “Oh yes we can!”

Miller explained, “I got tired of hearing we’re just a small university. They (faculty and students) were great to work with because they were willing to change and grow. I really like growth.”

However, advocates of SDSU are thankful she didn’t grow too much.