Remembering Hugh McMillan and his legacy. ‘There was no bigger champion for kids.’

The Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula community is mourning the loss of Hugh McMillan.

McMillan passed away at the age 96, Feb. 10, at St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor from natural causes, his family said.

McMillan was a retired CIA employee, a long-time columnist for the Gateway, and a community activist.

He did a little bit of everything, Robyn Denson, Pierce County Council member for District 7 and friend of McMillan, told the Gateway Monday.

The CIA took him around the world to places such as Japan, India, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey. McMillan retired from the CIA after 26 years.

In 1978, McMillan and his wife, Janice, moved to Joe’s Bay near Home on the Key Peninsula.

Their home became a well-known spot in the community, son Lance McMillan told the Gateway Tuesday. They hosted famous Fourth of July parties, starting the year they moved in.

“He was a very gregarious person, liked being with other people,” Lance McMillan said.

What started as a celebration with close friends grew as years went on.

“The parties grew to be enormous, well over 100 people,” Lance McMillan said. “There would be friends, teachers, school district employees, firefighters, police officers, politicians, everyone. Sometimes he’d invite random community members to the party while being in line at the grocery store.”

Shortly after they arrived on the Key Peninsula, McMillan volunteered with the Key Peninsula Fire Department. That was around the time he lost a 19-year-old son, Marshall McMillan, in a boating accident in 1980.

“Becoming a volunteer at the fire department was something that helped him out of a huge depression once my brother had passed away,” Lance McMillan said.

Once McMillan got involved with the community, he never stopped.

He eventually held positions as the president of the firefighters’ association, as a fire commissioner, as vice president of the Pierce County Fire Commissioners’ Association, and as a board member for the Washington Fire Commissioners Association.

There’s a plaque in front of the Key Center Fire Station to honor him as a lifetime honorary state fire commissioner and volunteer.

‘No bigger champion for kids’

McMillan spotlighted kids throughout the community in his Gateway column, Kids Corner, for decades.

“He was just bigger than life and there was no bigger champion for kids than Hugh,” Denson said.

McMillan started writing for the Gateway in the 1980s and couldn’t decide what sort of stories he wanted to pursue, Lance McMillan said.

“Someone in the parking lot on the way out of the office had mentioned he should spotlight a student,” Lance McMillan said.

After his first piece, it became a regular column.

Kids Corner spotlighted various students, events, clubs, and accomplishments of local youth.

“He had a real passion for advocating for kids and wanting to highlight their talents,” his son said.

McMillan began to lose his sight in the early months of 2020, so he enlisted friends to help him keep writing the column.

Payton Danosky, 18, helped McMillan while she was a student at Gig Harbor High School, she said. Now she’s a student at the University of Washington.

She’d gather quotes, help him take pictures and worked with McMillan to structure articles.

That allowed McMillan to spotlight the nonprofit Lifting Hearts with the Arts in Kids Corner. The nonprofit fostered friendships between youth and seniors, with arts and crafts, Danosky said. Danosky was president, and hosted a Halloween party at the assisted living facility where McMillan was living in 2021.

McMillan wanted to capture the event.

“I helped him, acting as his eyes, to guide him through the party and direct the camera, so he was once again able to take pictures to add to the article,” Danosky said.

They formed a friendship.

“He believed that kids had the ability to do great things and make a change in the world,” Danosky said.

McMillan was also a founding member of Communities in Schools, an organization that supports local students.

Denson, McMillan, and Laurel Schultz all served on the board together.

“He wanted every kid to be successful,” Schultz, program director for CIS, told the Gateway Tuesday.

Kids looked at McMillan as a honorary grandfather, she said. Danosky said that’s how she saw him.

“There was one time at my children’s school we thought my mother might not make it to grandparents day in the classroom,” Schultz said. “When Hugh heard about it, he quickly said he’d be there as a step in and he sure did it.”

Both Hugh and Janice McMillan were long-time reading mentors at Evergreen Elementary with Communities in Schools, Schultz said.

“He once told me he became a reading mentor because when he was in first grade an older student helped him when he was having a hard time with reading,” Schultz said, “And he remembered that forever.”

“He was so passionate about making sure that all of our children had what they needed to be successful,” Denson said.

Schultz said she will continue to ask: “What would Hugh do?” when problem solving.

His life experiences allowed him to think in a unique way, Denson agreed.

In 2021, the Peninsula School District named the gymnasium at Evergreen Elementary in Lakebay after the McMillans.

The gym became “The Hugh and Janice McMillan Community Center.”

School district officials described him as a passionate advocate in a news release Monday.

“Hugh was a champion for our students, and spent countless hours and miles driving to as many student events as possible to photograph for his column, Kids Corner,” the press release said.

The release said that he “considered each student at all PSD schools his own child.”

‘He always thought of others’

Curtis and Patricia Scott crossed paths with McMillan in a professional setting, and quickly became friends.

Hugh McMillan was the first person the Scotts met when they moved to the area in 1997. Patricia Scott became principal of Peninsula High School that year.

“He made it his intention to get to know everyone and their story,” Curtis Scott told the Gateway.

Curtis Scott served in the Air Force. He and McMillan bonded over serving abroad.

The McMillans and Scotts became travel buddies, and took annual trips to Mexico.

They also attended McMillan’s famous Fourth of July parties.

McMillan also recruited Curtis Scott to serve on the board of the Emergency Preparedness Coalition. McMillan helped form the coalition in the 1990s to ensure the community would be ready for any natural disaster that came its way.

McMillan later convinced him to be the chairman from 2016-2019.

He also was one of the friends who helped McMillan compose articles for Kids Corner.

“His mission was Kids Corner,” Curtis Scott said. “And the kids loved seeing him around.”

When the McMillans settled into an assisted living facility a few years ago, the Scotts called and visited regularly.

“We thought of them as family,” Curtis Scott said.

He said he thinks keeping the many organizations Hugh started healthy will be how his legacy can carry on.

“He’s a really key part to why the peninsula is as good as it is,” Curtis Scott said.

McMillan was named citizen of the year by the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce in 2010, and the Pierce County Council proclaimed April 22, 2006 “Hugh McMillan Day.”

“He certainly is leaving a strong legacy of starting so many organizations and promoting so many great causes,” Denson said. “Hugh truly set the bar for what it is to be a human. In a world where so many people think about themselves, he always thought of others.”

He accomplished more in one lifetime than most could do in 10, Denson said.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Janice, and son Marshall McMillan. He’s survived by his son Lance McMillan, daughter-in-law Sheri Ahlheim, and grandson Cameron McMillan.

A celebration of life will be announced at a later date.

The family is considering a date in June, to allow international friends to make travel arrangements and to find a large enough venue for the event, Lance McMillan told the Gateway.

In lieu of cards or flowers, the family asks the community to consider donating to the Peninsula Schools Education Fund or the Peninsula branch of Communities in Schools.

Patricia Scott told the Gateway McMillan didn’t like to say goodbye. Instead, he’d say “ta-ta” or the Russian expression “dasvidaniya,” meaning “until we meet again.”