4 minute read
Heart and Soul
MTSU’s retired three-star general, Keith Huber, and Daniels Center Director Hilary Miller discuss each other’s servant leadership to pay back those who served their country
by Carol Stuart
Long before videos went viral on social media and while her brother was deployed to war, Hilary Miller wrote a July 2006 column for MTSU’s The Record about her fundraising efforts to help provide U.S. troops with helmet inserts to protect against explosives.
After the Associated Press picked up the article, it spread quickly to media outlets across the nation. Her Marine brother, Chris Frey, whose current rank is lieutenant colonel, and his dog, Trooper, became somewhat famous from the photo, and she was invited by retired U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark to guestwrite for his blog— a week after a wellknown Hillary (Clinton). Miller also had become family friends with retired Navy Capt. Bob Meaders, a doctor who spearheaded the Operation Helmet retrofits.
“I think people read it because of the photo of my brother and his dog, and what was going on in the world,” said Miller, now director of MTSU’s Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center.
During an economic downturn and slowdown in her College of Liberal Arts position, she asked to continue working on veterans issues at MTSU and by 2009 spearheaded the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.
In spring 2014, shortly after marrying Joel Miler, MTSU’s then-professor of Military Science, she was in the audience when a retired three-star U.S. Army general, LTG(R) Keith Huber, spoke at the ROTC awards ceremony. Huber had recently become a civilian for the first time since he entered West Point, retiring from 38 years in the U.S. Army, 14 of them as a general officer—and the last two as a commanding general in Afghanistan.
“One of the challenges of transition is trying to reintegrate yourself with your family, in my case my son and my grandsons, and then my daughter, who was still a teenager,” said Huber, now MTSU senior advisor for veterans and leadership initiatives. “That first year of retirement, I underwent four major surgeries, which kept me bedridden. So not only am I trying to reintegrate with my wife and daughter in the house, but I’m also feeling pretty useless because I don’t have mobility, and they’re required to tend to me.
“So my second year of retirement, my wife goes, ‘Hey, Huber, I love you, but you gotta get out of the house.’ ”
After contacting ROTC programs across Tennessee to offer speaking services for free, Huber impressed many at MTSU—including Miller. She invited him to return in November as the first speaker for an Honors lecture series she was helping develop, with, as Huber requested, a full schedule from practically sunrise to well after sunset. While meeting with President Sidney A. McPhee, Huber declined a surprise offer of employment—but instead suggested a fact-finding mission about MTSU and its veterans that he embarked on with Miller in early 2015.
The rest is history. As MTSU’s Daniels Center celebrates 10 years of aiding veterans and military families on campus and across the globe, we asked Miller and Huber to talk about their patriotic partnership to serve those who have bravely served the nation.
Hilary about HUBER—Click to read Q&A with Daniels Center Director Hilary Miller about LTG(R) Keith Huber
