Loved ones remember Hugh McMillan, Key Peninsula’s unofficial mayor who ‘gave a damn’
The Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula community gathered Sunday to celebrate Hugh McMillan.
McMillan passed away at 96 earlier this year. He was a retired CIA employee, a longtime columnist for the Gateway, and a community activist.
His family waited to have a celebration of life, in order for all of his friends to be able to make it, his son, Lance McMillan, previously told the Gateway. The had the celebration in the Peninsula High School gymnasium.
Hugh McMillan was involved in many aspects of his community.
Shortly after McMillan and his wife, Janice, arrived on the Key Peninsula, he volunteered with the Key Peninsula Fire Department. That was around the time he lost a 19-year-old son, Marshall McMillan, in a boating accident in 1980.
“That was the watershed event that brought my dad out of his deep well of grief and began an explosion of community involvement,” Lance McMillan said.
He eventually held positions as the president of the firefighters’ association, as a fire commissioner, as vice president of the Pierce County Fire Commissioners’ Association, and as a board member for the Washington Fire Commissioners Association.
“He was part of our family,” Anne Nesbit with Key Peninsula Fire said. “We were a stop on his way home and we’d always look forward to his visits.”
In 2019, a plaque was placed outside the Key Center Fire Station to honor him as a lifetime honorary state fire commissioner and volunteer.
‘Larger-than-life presence and passion’
Photography was one of his greatest passions, Lance McMillan said.
He spent 30 years writing and taking photos for Kids Corner, a column in the Gateway which showcased students throughout the Peninsula School District.
“If there was a kindergarten class reading ‘The Cat in the Hat,’ or a group of middle school students visiting Minter Creek salmon hatchery, he was there to record the event, interview the kids and publish an article,” Lance McMillan said. “He kind of became every kid’s honorary grandpa. In many cases, the relationship he had with those kids extended beyond childhood.”
“When I first met him, his larger-than-life presence and passion for our learning community were so absolutely evident,” Peninsula School District Superintendent Krestin Bahr said Sunday.
McMillan often showcased school plays put on by the drama club, Peninsula High School teacher Jonathan Bill told the audience Sunday.
“He was everywhere,” Bill said.
Bill added that McMillan was more than a promoter or cheerleader.
“He would show up and talk to all my kids,” Bill said. “They loved to see him. He would just light up he was so excited about what the kids were doing.”
In 2021, the Peninsula School District named the gymnasium at Evergreen Elementary in Lakebay after the McMillans. The gym became “The Hugh and Janice McMillan Community Center.”
McMillan and a handful of other community members formed the Key Peninsula Lions Club in 1983.
“He wanted the peninsula to be a better place and he wanted all of us to help him,” Bill Jones, president of the KP Lions Club said.
“My dad may not have swung the hammer that built things in the community, but he was the one who convinced others to donate their time, sweat, and money to bring projects to fruition,” Lance McMillan said.
Hugh McMillan and U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer met serving on the board of Communities in Schools.
“The degree to which he gave a damn about his country was evidenced over the years by the notes he would send me, and probably many of the elected officials or former elected officials here in this room, expressing his strong opinions about one issue or another,” Kilmer said.
“Give a damn for Hugh” was the theme of the celebration Sunday.
Kilmer described McMillan as the unofficial mayor of the Key Peninsula who left an incredible mark on the people who lived there.
What really made McMillan special was how he witnessed his community, grandson Cameron McMillan said.
“He saw people,” Cameron McMillan said. “It didn’t matter how they identified or presented, it didn’t matter where they were from, or what they believed in. Hugh saw the value in every single person.”
To share your memories of Hugh and Janice, visit: https://memories.com.au/timeline/hughjanice-mcmillan-86120.
This story was originally published June 19, 2023 at 11:36 AM.
