Former Georgia governor and U.S. senator Zell Miller died Friday following a battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He was 86.
“The people of Georgia have lost one of our state’s finest public servants,” grandson Bryan Miller said in a statement. He said Miller “passed away peacefully at his home with family by his side.”
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Gov. Nathan Deal, who served with Miller in the Georgia State Senate and later in Congress, says he cherished Miller’s counsel for decades. “Georgia has lost a favorite son and a true statesmen, and I’ve lost a dear friend,” Deal said. “Zell’s legacy is unequaled and his accomplishments in public service are innumerable. Without question, our state and our people are better off because of him.”
Ninth District Georgia Congressman Doug Collins describes Miller as a “true man of the mountains.”
“Zell Miller helped shape Georgia into one of the strongest states in the union,” Collins says. “He was a national giant from northeast Georgia, and I looked up to him as a leader who never blinked in the face of a challenge or let politics eclipse his principles. I’ll always remember the ways in which he encouraged and supported me through many seasons.”
A lifetime of public service
The North Georgia Democrat spent a lifetime in public service. He briefly served in the U.S. Marine Corps before returning to his hometown of Young Harris to teach at the local college. He launched his political career in 1959 when he was elected mayor of Young Harris.
In 1961, Miller was elected to the first of two terms in the Georgia state senate. He left elected office in 1965 after a failed run for Congress and, for a decade, worked in various roles with state agencies and the Democratic Party of Georgia.
Miller was elected as Georgia’s lieutenant governor in 1975. He held the job for 16 years and, to this day, remains the longest serving lieutenant governor in Georgia history. In 1991, he was elected to his first of two terms as governor.
While governor, Miller created the HOPE scholarship program and was a champion of public education. He left the governor’s office in 1999 with an 85% approval rating, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
He was not out of public office long.
When Republican Georgia U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell died in 2000, then-Gov. Roy Barnes appointed Miller to fill Coverdell’s seat. That November, Miller won an election to serve the final four years of Coverdell’s term.
In 2004, Miller famously famously spoke at the GOP convention as a Democrat in support of former President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign. He had done the same twelve years earlier for fellow Democrat Bill Clinton during the 1992 Democratic National Convention.
Miller retired from public life in 2014. He will be memorialized in three separate services next week.
A public memorial service will be held at Young Harris College on Monday, March 26 at 10 a.m. A celebration of life service is planned for Tuesday, March 27, at 11 a.m. at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church. The executive state funeral service will be held at the Georgia State Capitol on Wednesday, March 28 beginning at 11 a.m.
Gov. Zell Miller is survived by his wife, Shirley, and two sons.
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