The year Hazel D. (Shanklin) Miller ’51 graduated from the University of Wichita with a bachelor’s degree in general studies, she was one of more than 400 graduating seniors and one of only six seniors of distinction to garner Women’s Honor Group accolades.
Selected on the criteria of scholarship, leadership and service, WU Honor Woman Shanklin was active on campus, participating and serving in leadership roles in Kappa Delta Pi, YWCA, the Sociology Club, Student Forum Board, Associated Women Students, a national service organization, and others.
As a student at WU, she focused her academic attention on education sociology and was a student delegate for the Student Seminar Training program in Washington, D.C., where, during the summer of 1951, she worked for the U.S. State Department and the EPA. Back in Wichita that fall, she shared her experiences and spoke on “Impressions of Washington” at a meeting of the Young Business Women’s League of the YWCA.
A Wichita native, Miller went on to reside in several U.S. cities, including Kansas City, Princeton, St. Louis, Raleigh and Asheville, N.C. She worked for a number of entities, including Boeing and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. As a volunteer, she served on the WU Alumni Association board and was active at the Asheville Art Museum and Isaac Dickerson Elementary School.
Hazel Miller — wife of Bill Graye and the late Harry McDaniel and Bill Miller; mom, stepmom and grandmother — died Sept. 18, 2014 in Arden, N.C.
