By David Slone
Times-Union
WINONA LAKE — Anyone who has ever traveled on the greenways in Winona Lake, shopped at The Village at Winona, ice skated at the Miller Sunset Pavilion, attended First or Third Fridays downtown Warsaw or taken part in a host of other activities has Dr. Dane and Mary Louise Miller to thank.
On Saturday, Mary Louise, 78, of Winona Lake, died surrounded by her family and friends. Her husband, Dane, one of the founders of Biomet Inc., preceded Mary Louise at age 69 on Feb. 10, 2015.
Several friends recalled Mary Louise’s kindness and generosity Sunday, along with her love for her community.
Dan Hann has known her since about 1983-84 when he was an attorney at Ice Miller in Indianapolis, helping Dane with legal work in starting up Biomet. In 1989, Dane convinced Hann to join the Biomet Board of Directors, becoming general counsel for the company. When Dane retired in 2006, Hann took over as CEO for a couple years.
“Dane was one of my closest friends all of that time, as well as Mary Louise, and more recently, I’ve been on the Miller Foundation Board for twentysome years and have always helped them run the foundation. And then Mary Louise and I worked together this last fall to create – under the Miller Foundation – the new Village Foundation and took all of the Village property out of her personal estate and contributed it to a nonprofit so that the Village at Winona would hopefully continue on into perpetuity,” Hann said.
He said Mary Louise and Dane absolutely adored the community.
“Going back to the late ’80s, after they relocated to the other side of the lake, they always had a vision to rebuild and ultimately preserve what now everyone thinks of as The Village at Winona,” Hann said.
In the early 1990s, Dane and Mary Louise started anonymously buying up the real estate in Winona Lake when it was “basically a slum,” he recalled.
“We’re actually in the process right now of taking the old chapel in The Village and we’re going to make that into The Village at Winona Museum, and part of that will honor the legacy of Dane and Mary Louise, but I think it’s safe to say the real legacy of Dane and Mary Louise is really The Village at Winona. Zimmer Biomet goes on and continues to evolve, but (The Village is) something, I think, when you think of Dane and Mary Louise in this community, it’s truly their legacy,” Hann stated.
It was very important to Mary Louise, he continued. “Last year, when she became ill and had health issues, we had been working on this plan for – really since Dane’s passing – to protect The Village so it wouldn’t pass through her estate and who would know what future generations may or may not do. So she wanted to protect it and she created this nonprofit foundation called The Village at Winona Foundation, which is a subsidiary of the Miller Foundation, to preserve and protect it.”
Hann said he hopes the community appreciates what Mary Louise did to keep The Village going in perpetuity for the enjoyment of generations to come.
“So it’s well-protected and well-preserved and that was just a reflection of her love and commitment to the community, I believe,” Hann said, adding Mary Louise was just a remarkable woman. “Over the years, Dane has always received a lot of press and attention, which was very well-deserved, but the old saying, ‘Behind every great man is a great woman,’ well, that was her, that was Mary Louise.”
He reiterated that she loved her community and its people, but she never sought the spotlight and even shied away from it.
“She truly loved to give back to her community, and, again, she was just a remarkable woman. Kind, generous, loving. I can’t say enough about her. Like so many of her closest friends, we’re devastated. It’s such a great loss,” Hann said.
Jim Lancaster, Winona Lake Town Councilman, has known Mary Louise for about the last 20 years, after joining Biomet and more recently through community activities.
“She’s been a very good friend to me and very sweet to me in my personal life. And I think one of the things I find about Mary Louise is that she kind of has this quiet, graceful strength to who she was,” he said. “Everybody often thought of Mary Louise as Dane’s wife, but she was a champion and a giant in her own right. If you think about things that got done since Dane passed; if you think about what she did with the town of Winona Lake, with the Miller Sunset Pavilion, that was all her. That was all her wanting to do that and work with the town on that. She had a vision for a community venue like that, where you could do ice skating in the winter and a farmers market in the summer. And I would say that her vision has come to life there, and it’s great to see that, and I know she was excited about that.”
If one looks at The Village and its impact, not only on Winona Lake but also in Kosciusko County, along with the mountain bike trails and how it’s all a contiguous ecosystem, Lancaster said, “Mary Louise did an amazing job kind of getting that set up.” She set up foundations to make sure it was all protected forever.
“Those are not insignificant deeds for anybody to do, let alone do a couple of those in a matter of a few years. And quietly. Again, I just think it speaks to her quiet, eloquent, graceful way in which she championed things, causes for the community,” Lancaster stated.
He noted Mary Louise was still the driving force behind the Dr. Dane and Mary Louise Miller Foundation.
“She was very much involved with that, and, again, you think about what that foundation does, somewhat quietly in our community, and it’s not insignificant,” Lancaster said.
If Dane was a patriarch of the community in his own way, Lancaster said he thinks of Mary Louise as maybe one of the final matriarchs.
“I don’t know that we have a Dane or a Mary Louise Miller. It’s sad on one hand, but I think they also set great examples of what others can do in the ways they have. I just go back to her vision and sincerity, when you think about stewardship and what she’s done with the foundation, how the Village has been protected, how the trails have been protected. It’s such a blessing,” he said.
“I hazard to say that there’s very few people in the county that haven’t somehow been impacted by the generosity and/or the vision in which Dane and then more Mary Louise have had on our community.”
Former Winona Lake Town Manager Craig Allebach stated, “I cannot begin to put into words or describe the impact that Mary Louise Miller had on the town of Winona Lake and the transformation that the town has seen under the vision that Dane and Mary Louise created years ago.
“I was personally and professionally blessed to serve my entire time (25 years) as Winona Lake town manager and benefited from the vision and philanthropy of Mary Louise Miller. Mary Louise only wanted the best for Winona Lake and set out to make for a nice community, a place people wanted to live. What you see today in the investment by others makes Winona Lake the place people want to live. She wanted for things to stay local, and what I mean by local is actually Winona Lake,” he stated.
As a result of her efforts, Allebach said the community has seen not only the investment of their philanthropy but other residents stepping forward to improve their homes.
“She had an amazing heart for Winona Lake, and in the many conversations I had with her, she always put Winona Lake first. Whether it was the town’s greenways, police department, park department, mountain bike trails, leadership of the town council, the residents and the town were benefactors of her philanthropy and vision. I know she had a special place in her heart for helping women and children, also, that some may not know,” Allebach said.
“I will miss the down-to-earth conversations I had with her on moving the town forward, the latest being her involvement in the Miller Sunset Pavilion. She never wanted recognition and supported every project I brought to her on the town’s behalf, even on Warsaw and Kosciusko County’s behalf, too.”
Allebach recalled one of the first conversations he had when the new town manager, Pam Howard, came to Winona Lake was taking Howard down to the Village at Winona and Dane and Mary Louise Foundation offices to have a conversation about the impact of what the Millers mean to Winona Lake and to gather a historical perspective as to the impact.
“Man, what an amazing legacy that will never be forgotten and what we see in the town every day,” Allebach said. “I know family and friends, especially Winona Lake friends, can take comfort in having known Mary Louise and driving and walking through the community that she loved and put her handprint on. Prayers for family in the days ahead as we celebrate her life. She will be greatly missed. Thank you, Mary Louise Miller.”
Ken Nisly met Mary Louise 39 years ago when his wife, Priscilla, was friends with Mary Louise’s then-cleaning lady.
“(Priscilla) is the only one out of everybody who has worked for Mrs. Miller that has stayed with her that long. And then I got introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Miller at that point, and within about six months, they became almost parents to us both and it was like a match made in heaven. It’s been very special,” Ken recalled.
He said Mary Louise is the “most generous, loving, caring and reasonable person that you’d ever want to meet. And she never made quick decisions, and Dane was the same way. They both were just very, very to the point. I’ll just say it this way: I’ve never had anybody who could be as stern with me and you still felt like they were your best friend.”
It’s hard to put into words what the Millers meant to the Nislys and to the community, Ken said. Every day that he drives through The Village, he said he thinks about something the Millers did to make it such a beautiful community.
“Both of them, if they had their choice, they would have preferred nobody ever knew how that happened. They always gave everybody else recognition, but never were out there to say, ‘Look at me. This is what we accomplished,’” Ken said.
Priscilla said Mary Louise was her best friend after working for her for 39 years.
“We were just a team,” she said. “Kind. Generous. Loving. Cared about everybody. She was just outstanding.”
