Martha T. Mills: A celebration of life

National Voter, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Monica Sullivan

Martha T. Mills, a 37-year veteran of the League of Women Voters staff, died in September 2002. Her gifts to the League are legion, starting when she joined the staff in March 1952 as a program specialist on national government issues. From 1954-1958, she coordinated the League's historic Freedom Agenda, protecting individual liberties during the McCarthy era. In the 1960s, Martha was the League's foreign policy expert; she wrote the bestseller, The China Puzzle, as part of the LWV's groundbreaking study of the normalization of U.S.-China relations. Martha was LWVEF director from 1970-1984, and subsequently, LWVUS deputy executive director. After retiring in 1989, Martha was instrumental in the publication of the League's official history, In the Public Interest: The League of Women Voters 1920-1970.

Martha's delight in nature was legendary--from the annually celebrated laurels of her beloved Accokeek, MD, to the saguaro cactus and blooming desert of her next home in Scottsdale, AZ, to the seals, sea lions and shorebirds she introduced to visitors after she and her husband, Don, "went home" to Pacific Grove, CA.

Indeed, Martha's greatest gift was her joy in people. So many of us felt blessed to be her "special friend," seeing her face light up in greeting. Colleagues were awed by her deep intellectual courage; her encyclopedic knowledge of League history and her unwavering focus on the future; her mentoring, wordsmithing and confidence-building skills; her enthusiasm for life even during chemotherapy. Former national board member Barbara Stuhler said, "Martha made me better than I was." Or perhaps it was that Martha's utter belief in you helped you discover that you were better than you thought.

On her retirement, the LWV national board established the Martha T. Mills Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring her thus: "She has unfailingly offered the League her wisdom, warmth, optimism and humor, and her service is unlikely ever to be equaled." When League presidents, board members and staff members gathered to celebrate Martha's life in October, Percy Maxim Lee, the League's 5th president, wrote shortly before her own death in early November, "One of the best things I did in my early years of presidency was to bring Martha Mills onto the staff." Without a doubt, one of the best things Martha did during her life was to help the League and her friends be the best they could be. Former colleague Laureen Andrews recalled one of the lessons she learned from Martha: "What really matters at the end of the day is that you did your best." That is Martha's lasting legacy to the League.

Contributions to the League of Women Voters Education Fund in Martha Mills's memory supported the publication of A Citizen's Guide to Global Policymaking.