Early Life
Milliken was born in Traverse City, Michigan, the second child in a family familiar with the intricacies of public service. His father, James T. Milliken, served as mayor of Traverse City and as Michigan State Senator for the 27th District, 1941–50, and his mother Hildegarde (née Grawn) had been elected to the Traverse City school board; the first woman elected to public office there. Milliken's paternal grandfather James W. also served as a Michigan State Senator from the 27th District, 1898-1900.
Upon graduating from high school, Milliken entered Yale University, where he met his future wife, Helen Wallbank. In 1942, he interrupted his studies to enlist in the Army Reserve Corps and, in early 1943, volunteered for the Army Air Corps. During World War II he flew 50 combat missions as a waist-gunner on B-24 bombers and survived two crash landings. He received seven military honors, including the Purple Heart and Air Medal.
On October 20, 1945, one month after he was discharged honorably, he and Helen were married. The couple had two children: a daughter, Elaine, a lawyer and feminist, who died of cancer in 1993, and a son, William, Jr. The following spring, Milliken graduated from Yale. William and Helen Milliken moved to Traverse City, Michigan that year and he became president of J.W. Milliken, Inc., a department store founded by his grandfather, and later run by his father. Helen W. Milliken died, aged 89, on November 16, 2012 at her Traverse City home, following a battle with ovarian cancer.
Read more about this topic: William Milliken
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you—it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.”
—Philip Roth (b. 1933)