If compassion had a name in Marshall County, it might be George Milam.
Milam, who has spent the better part of his adult life as an educator and volunteer, is no stranger to the community. A former band director in Marshall County School District, Milam found his first love in teaching. Though he retired after more than 30 years of passing his own love of music on to children in the community, his wife Midge said it’s something that has never left him.
“He’s always loved students and teaching,” Midge said. “… He’s always had that knack. After he retired, he said ‘I don’t miss the school, but I miss the students.’ … He does strive for excellence in everything he does.”
Midge said her husband has never really stopped teaching, serving at one time as the director of an instrumental ensemble at First Baptist and now as the head of a handbell choir at First Methodist. While the handbell choir was something new for Milam, Midge said her husband was never one to back away from a challenge.
“He’s always willing to learn something new, even at his age,” Midge said. “… With the handbell choir, they asked me first if I thought he would do it. I said, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him, but let me tell you one thing: If he does it, he will be the teacher.’ And he plans lesson plans every week, just like he did at school. He spends hours preparing so that when he gets up there, he says ‘if these people are going to volunteer to come and play then I need to be prepared for them.’”
It’s a testament to how he values time, and more importantly, people. Milam, who feared there were residents in the community who could not afford to prepare a meal themselves or might be alone during the holidays, persuaded members of his former church home at First Baptist to host a free, community Christmas meal. Milam spearheaded and helped organize the effort, which has since become an annual event. Longtime friend and fellow volunteer in the effort Ann Riley remembers it well.
“It was his idea, I thought he was crazy,” Riley said. “I told him so, to his face. … And then the first time it came around where Christmas was on Sunday, I said, ‘What are we going to do?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘we’re going to have it.’ He arranged that, he got the volunteers and did a fantastic job with it.”
That sense of compassion and love for his fellow man is a core component of who Milam is, according to those who know him. Milam genuinely cares about people.
“He’s one of the best persons I’ve ever known as far as giving is concerned,” Riley said. “Just one little, bitty thing: My husband has been in the hospital since the first of February … and one thing that he does that nobody else would think of is every Monday, he has my garbage can brought back into the house before I get home the hospital. I mean, that’s a little thing, but for somebody that’s trying to do everything at home, that is huge.
“He doesn’t let anybody need for anything,” she added. “… He just is really what everyone should strive to be. He cares about people. He doesn’t care if you have money or not, if you have a need he’s there, and he’s like that with everybody that he knows.”
Milam makes it his life to address the needs of his community and beyond. Midge said her husband had participated in mission work with the church in several instances, including Hurricane Katrina assistance. He also, with First Baptist Church, coordinated disaster relief in Marshall County following the ice storm in 2009.
“He organized the team to provide meals, provide disaster relief, whatever it was,” Midge said. “Cleaning up yards, cutting trees, hauling brush, all this kind of stuff. We had some Mennonites that came from all over – New York and everywhere – and he organized them; he got the names of people who needed help, and then he organized sending people out to help them. They would come back to the church, we’d have meals for them and they stayed at the church. … He was very involved in that for weeks.”
Perhaps one of his greatest contributions to the community, however, is standing on the Elm Street lot in Benton: The Children’s Art Center. Milam spearheaded efforts to raise money and construct the new arts center, completed in 2014. Benton Mayor Rita Dotson got to know Milam during her time on Benton City Council as he and Marshall County Arts Commission members began the planning process for the arts center in earnest. Dotson said Milam has an uncommon focus and commitment when it comes to the things he holds dear.
“(He’s) driven,” Dotson said. “He is like a dog with a bone. He’ll chew on that bone until he gets the results that he wants. … He’s the backbone of that place. … He’s so driven that he’s moved the arts center to places that it would have never went. I don’t think it would have ever evolved into what it is right now had he not been in the driver’s seat.”
Since its opening, the center has served as the hub of Arts Commission activities and youth programs, such as student showcases and children’s theater. It’s played a vital role in the community, Dotson said.
“I think it’s been great for the children … even adults,” Dotson said. “There’s all kinds of classes you can go to. It’s a place where people can showcase their talents. Even the things like the Derby dinner and the Progressive Dinner and the events they have, it brings the community out and brings them together. … I think it pulls the community together.”
Milam helps to ensure it all happens, too, serving as the center’s de facto executive director. He does so out of pure altruism, according to Administrative Assistant Suzann Cass.
“He’s a very caring, very knowledgeable, very committed person,” Cass said. “He goes above and beyond – always – in anything that is done here, and it’s all volunteer. He’s here most days, five days a week, just making sure the center is up and running and ready for the kids, ready for the programs. If he’s not up in the tech booth, he’s got somebody lined up to help him with that or to do that. He’s just always one step ahead of all of us.”
Cass said Milam had been instrumental in every component of the center, right down to parking lot construction and day-to-day operations. Milam isn’t compensated in any way for what he does, either, she said. But it’s about more than that for him.
“He cares a lot about people,” Cass said. “And he also cares for Benton and the community in Marshall County.”
That care and compassion is something that extends into his own family life, as well. Midge said her husband of 43 years never ceased to be considerate. He’s spontaneous, she said, and has a wit that those who know him appreciate.
“He’s fun,” Midge said. “I never know what he’s going to say or do. Easter Sunday morning we were getting ready to walk out the door to go to church, and I grabbed my purse and there’s an Easter egg in there. … He’s very loving.”