CM Life History
In November of 1918, a young college instructor-turned-soldier moved to the World War I battle front in France. In the distance he could hear the exploding shells as the Allies pushed Germany toward surrender.
The armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, and Harry Miller hadn't fired a shot.
Full of unreleased energy, he returned to the small Midwestern college where he had taught English from September 1916 until he was drafted in May 1918.
Central Michigan Normal, he thought, should have a weekly newspaper. With a soldier's zeal he changed the monthly Normal Bulletin into the weekly Normal Life.
Working with Miller on the Normal Life was Professor Francis Robinson, who taught penmanship, and for whom, Robinson Hall is named. Robinson handled the business end, and Miller, with some of his English students, provided the news.
Now professor emeritus, Miller doesn't recall the exact date when Normal Life began publication, but the Life issued during the week of Central's 50th anniversary celebration, November 1, 1942, carries a history of the paper.
Miller, who retired in 1959 after 43 years of teaching English at Central, lives with his wife Rosalie at 304 E. High St. Mrs. Miller retired last year as head of the circulation department of the CMU library.
"We didn't own even a lead pencil," says Miller, recalling the early days of Life. To help produce copy he instituted a news writing class in the English department.
Normal Life first appeared on December 2, 1919, with a maxim it was to carry beneath the name plate for many years: All that a man hath will he give for his life.
Life was edited in Miller's office and printed at the Enterprise Print Shop in downtown Mount Pleasant. The paper subsisted almost entirely on its advertising.
After the paper was established, Miller decided to have a banquet for journalists in this area. The dinner was excellent, and intending to save the diners from the boredom of a speech following the meal, Miller had purposely not asked anyone to speak. But the ensuing silence was appalling. Even journalists were unable to strike up a conversation when they had expected a speech.
"I had new ideas about things, but that wasn't a very good one," Miller muses with a laugh.
