Lynn Smith Miller papers

Lynn Smith Miller entered Wesleyan in the Fall of 1910 and graduated with the Class of 1914. At the time of his matriculation, his Freshman class was the largest in Wesleyan's history—a total of 121 students. While at Wesleyan, Miller was a member of Delta Upsilon (the Omega Phi chapter at Wesleyan). He graduated with a B.A.

Lynn Smith Miller was born on November 29, 1891 in Oneonta, New York to Merritt James Miller and Rita Louise Smith Miller. His older brother, Floyd Josiah Miller, also attended Wesleyan and graduated with the Class of 1907 with a B.A. in the Classics (Latin and Greek). Lynn Smith Miller was the president of his graduating class from high school—which consisted for six students—and was awarded Second Prize for General Scholarship. Having graduated high school at the age of 14, Miller would wait four years before matriculating to Wesleyan. During Miller's freshman year, he resided in North College (indicated by the abbreviation "N.C." in his diary—included in the collection) with his roommate William Munroe Dox, also of New York. Highlights of Miller's Wesleyan career included recreational basketball, baseball and tennis; attending Vespers and football games; participating in the "cannon scrap," which Miller's class won in their freshman year; and going to movies at the Nickel Theater and plays at the Middlesex Theater both in downtown Middletown.

After graduating from Wesleyan, Miller and his brother edited and managed the Spectator, a weekly newspaper serving an area of North Indianapolis, Indiana. Miller then joined the U.S. Army in July 1917 and served in World War I in the infantry. After the war, Lynn Smith Miller teamed up again with his brother Floyd and bought a small weekly newspaper in Royal Oak, Michigan on the outskirts of Detroit. When Detroit grew, so did the newspaper and soon its circulation was up to 60,000.

Miller was first married to Roxie Andrews on August 31, 1922, but later had the marriage annulled. He then married Marie Hellen Walcott Fritzinger on September 25, 1929 and had three sons with her. His son John W. Miller graduated Wesleyan with the Class of 1953. Lynn S. Miller died on January 26, 1962 in Royal Oak, Michigan.