Alumni News
Remembering Marie Irene Miller, OP ’36
1913 –2007
Wasn’t She Delightful?
Alumni Profile
Yes, She Was Delightful!
By Bob Gordon
Director of the Siena Heights Library
By Jennifer Hamlin Church
Associate VP for Advancement: Alumni Relations
Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from Bob Gordon’s
remarks at Sister Marie Irene’s wake in February.
Marie Irene Miller was the first Adrian Dominican
(indeed the first Sister of any kind), and the first Siena
Heights alumna, to become my friend.
For about 20 years, I worked with Sister Marie Irene at
Siena Heights. When I met her in 1977, she was the assistant registrar at Siena. My friend, Bob Parker, was the
registrar. Or, at least the name plate on his desk said he
was. Everyone on campus knew Marie Irene really ran
the shop. Bob knew it, too, and was smart enough to
leave well enough alone.
When I came to Siena Heights in the summer of 1995,
Marie Irene already was an official “Honorary Member”
of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. I never
knew how long, or even if, she had served in a “regular”
capacity but she took her “honorary” status very seriously. No cushy membership-in-name-only service for
her. She attended every Alumni Board meeting, read
every meeting’s minutes meticulously, participated in
every activity she could attend, and stopped by my office
to talk several times a month.
When the time came for Marie Irene to slow down at
Siena, Bob approached me to say that Sister was looking
to retire from full-time employment and to inquire about
the possibility of her working half-time with me in the
advising office. By that time, I had been at Siena a number of years and had figured out that having a half-time
Dominican on your staff was like having a full-time normal person working for you. So I jumped at the chance.
Marie Irene’s assignment was to assist me with institutional research. At that time, she had almost no experience working with computers. For several years, she
struggled to make the transition from paper to digital
records. She was forever hand-tabulating data that had
already been tabulated by the computer. She just could
not believe a machine could be so fast and still be accurate. In time, though, she conceded.
In 1987, Marie Irene retired—again. That didn’t last
long, either. A few years later, she was back on campus
functioning, along with Sister Helen Duggan, as the
curator of Siena’s archives. There she was, 80 years old,
figuring out—mostly on her own—how to be an archivist. In just a few years, she organized tens of thousands
of documents and interviewed almost a hundred faculty
and staff about their experiences at and contributions
to Siena. Those documents and audio interviews are
now a vital part of the Siena archives.
Marie Irene was a Gospel Christian. To her, the things
that really mattered about her faith were the Golden
Rule and the Sermon on the Mount. She was completely
without prejudice about those who were different in
appearance, customs or ideas and was humble about
her own status in life.
26
Reflections Summer ’07
She became, almost immediately, my closest advisor,
supporter, trouble-shooter and mentor. She was candid,
creative, encouraging; and delivered her advice with a
twinkling smile.
Marie Irene earned her bachelor’s degree from Siena
where she majored in Latin. For many years, she taught
Latin and she was the Queen of Grammar. You did not
want to be in Marie Irene’s “Grammar Dog House.”
Marie Irene had a wonderful sense of humor. Well into
her 80s, she reveled in doing outrageous things for her
annual Christmas card—things that for her were firsts.
There was a photo of her on a horse. With a cowboy hat.
In a hot air balloon.
When she could no longer make it to Alumni Board
meetings, Marie Irene insisted on resigning he