Educator, businessman, municipal official.
Born at Griswold on 24 May 1915, son of John McMillan (1879-?) and Eva May Wright (1885-?), he grew up on the family farmstead and graduated from Central Normal School (1936). His career began as a permit teacher at Elva School (1930), later working in a classroom near Melita (three year) and at Spring Valley School (?-?) before moving to Clandeboye in 1940 and was Principal of Clandeboye School (1941-1949). In 1950, he moved to Selkirk and entered the insurance business. In 1953, he acquired the brokerage of Ruth Gordon (in Tovell Block on Clandeboye Street). Renamed as McMillan Insurance (rebranded in 2010 as ONE Insurance Group), he relocated his business to Main Street in 1963 and worked until retirement in 1979. He was elected to the Selkirk municipal council (c1962) and was the Liberal candidate for Selkirk constituency in the 1962 federal general election. He was active in the community as Treasurer of the Selkirk Kinsmen Club, President (and Secretary) of the Selkirk Chamber of Commerce, President of the Selkirk Home and School Association, and an elder of the Selkirk United Church. He was twice married, first to Margaret Burnett Brooks (?-1985) at Brandon on 11 June 1938. They had three sons, including infant son Lynn Emerson McMillan (1944-1944). He remarried to Ellma on 15 October 1987 and retired to the Red River Place Personal Care Home in January 2004. He died there on 13 January 2011.
Birth registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
“McMillan unanimous choice as Selkirk Liberal candidate,” Selkirk Enterprise, 9 May 1962, page 1.
Obituary [Margaret McMillan], Brandon Sun, 31 December 1985, page 15.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 19 January 2011, page C9.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 20 October 2018
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