I know I was afforded a great and awesome privilege growing up on a multi-generational family farm. Hard work…yes. In each other’s business…yes. Moments of disagreement…yes. But there was abundant laughter and always food (More on that in another story).

There were also “life lessons” being lived out. At the tender age of five, my grandfather quietly took me to school on how to treat others.

Our farm consisted of three living spaces. The main farmhouse is where my paternal grandparents lived. We lived “down around the corner” to the west and south in the farm manager’s residence. However, a short distance across the lawn from my grandparents was a three-car garage with a two-bedroom apartment above. 

The previous owner had used it as the hired hand’s quarters, but there was no need for that now. Grandpa advertised the place for rent and as I understand it, several applications came in. One applicant caught Grandpa’s eye. They were a young couple fresh out of grad school and the Air Force. 

So, in 1960 the Millers took up country living on our farm as he started his teaching career at Indiana University Kokomo.

Dr. Miller taught at IU Kokomo for over 40 years. He served as dean of faculty, assistant dean of academic affairs, acting chancellor, chief executive officer, dean of faculties, and special assistant to the chancellor. He taught multiple foreign languages and later led international business classes. Governor Frank O’Bannon also awarded him the Sagamore of the Wabash; the highest honor an Indiana governor can bestow.

Building on his degree from Butler and his experience in Air Force Intelligence, Herbert mastered nine languages during his lifetime.

I don’t think I’ve ever met a more intelligent person in my life. 

His wife, Lillian, was accomplished in her own right. She was his travel companion and hostess extraordinaire.  They were a team. Herbert’s deep bass voice and gregarious laugh could vibrate the windows.

Herbert and Lillian could not have children, so in the summer they would open their home to their nieces and nephews from Indianapolis. Some of my very favorite summertime memories are of Little Herbert, a.k.a. “Bug” and me getting into all sorts of mischief. 

Bug was up from Indianapolis the other day and stopped by our house. We talked, drank coffee, ate chocolate cake and reminisced for three hours.

Each summer in early August before school started Herbert and Lillian’s extended family would come to the farm for a cookout. Sixty or seventy city slickers watching Dad and me do the farm stuff. It was a ball.

By 1973 they had saved enough money for Grandpa to build them a home. I remember them sitting with Grandpa working on the plans. It was their dream home, and they had found the perfect lot east of town. But when they inquired, they were told it wasn’t available.

Grandpa asked about the same lot.

Suddenly it was for sale.

 And Grandpa built their dream home.

This was the ’60s and ’70s, and Dr. and Mrs. Miller were African American. Back in 1960, Grandpa had received grief from friends who told him he shouldn’t rent to them.

Grandpa rented to the Millers anyway.

I grew up without a thought for who our neighbors were. We shared life together. We shared a cup of sugar and a stick of butter back and forth with one another. We shared meals and family gatherings, and Herbert’s stories and that massive laugh were always part of it.

While America wrestled with assassinations, riots, Vietnam, Watergate and enormous cultural change, I never realized I was quietly learning Life Lesson #2: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Looking back now, I realize my parents and grandparents taught me theology long before I knew the word.

They taught it by the people they welcomed around their table.

They taught it by the neighbors they chose to love.

Long before I could explain Matthew 22, I was living next door to it.

³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 (ESV)

Grace and peace,

Jarvis—From Soil To Soul

Biographical information about Dr. Herbert Miller, Ph.D., was drawn from Indiana University Kokomo’s tribute to his life and service.