Teacher's patience boundless

8/31/2002

EDGERTON, Ohio - Marguerite Miller, 93, a former teacher in Edgerton Local Schools, died of renal failure Wednesday in Hillside Country Living near Bryan.

An Edgerton native, Mrs. Miller graduated from Edgerton schools in 1926 with 22 other students, only to return there years later to teach third, sixth, and seventh grades. She taught 27 years in the school system, retiring in 1964.

Violet Stotz said her mother went into teaching because she loved children and wanted to help all of them learn to the best of their capability. She was a firm believer that all children could learn if given help and patience, and spent many hours outside the school day tutoring her pupils.

“She spent many a noon hour helping children who had a problem,” Mrs. Stotz said. “I do know that she had strong discipline in her classroom, but the children all liked her.”

One of Mrs. Miller's pupils was her own daughter. Mrs. Stotz said that looking back on the experience, she enjoyed the dual role her mother played. “She was my seventh-grade teacher. At the time, I thought it was awful. But looking back, it wasn't bad at all,” Mrs. Stotz said. “At that time, the way the grades were set up, they only had one teacher per grade. She was the teacher, so that was the way it was.”

Mrs. Miller began her teaching career after graduating from Bowling Green State University. She continued her education over the years at the University of Toledo and Defiance College.

She began teaching in one-room schoolhouses in Williams County in Ohio and DeKalb County in Indiana. At those schools, she taught first through eighth grades, building the schools' fires each day so the students would keep warm. She taught all subjects to her students, including art, which she enjoyed outside the classroom. Mrs. Stotz said her mother often made afghans and other crafts. In all, Mrs. Miller taught for 32 years.

Her first husband, Vernon Hall, whom she married in 1927, died in 1943. She married L. Ralph Miller in 1946, and he died in 1981.

Surviving are her daughter, Violet Stotz; stepdaughter, Eileen Degner; sisters, Rose Beevers and Aritta Bell; brother, Kenneth; five grandchildren, two step grandchildren; four great-grandchildren, and a step great-grandchild.

Services will be at 3 p.m. today in the Krill Funeral Home here, where the body will be after 11 a.m. The family requests tributes to the Edgerton Area Foundation Education Fund or Bryan Public Library.