Former archivist and librarian Pamela Miller, BA’66, can trace her family’s deep connections to McGill back to the University’s first century.
In 1889, her grandmother, Mary LeRossignol, became one of the first women to attend McGill – admitted to the ‘Donaldas” department, named after Donald Smith, whose generosity made the admission of women to the University possible a few years earlier.
While Mary spent only a year at McGill before relocating with her family to Toronto, she unknowingly started a McGill tradition among the women in her family that continues to this day.
This fall, Pamela’s granddaughter Thea begins her studies in McGill’s Faculty of Arts, becoming the fifth woman in her family to enroll in the Faculty.
“I’m really happy to have the opportunity to go to McGill,” says Thea, a graduate of Marianopolis College in Westmount who is thinking of majoring in psychology and eventually studying law.
Growing up, she attended summer camps at McGill and took swimming lessons on campus. “McGill definitely has a presence in my life,” she says.
Indeed, McGill looms large in this family’s history.
Mary’s daughter Isabel Dawson Gales, BA’33, BCL’36, followed in her McGill footsteps.
Isabel – Pamela’s mother – embraced student life with gusto, playing on the women’s junior basketball team, leading the Delta Sigma Society – a women’s debating club – and serving on the Women’s Union. Like her mother, Isabel was a trailblazer: when she graduated from McGill’s Faculty of Law in 1936 – five years before women were allowed to practice law in Quebec – she was one of only two women graduates.
Pamela’s father, D. Lorne Gales, founded the McGill Development Office and was a pioneering figure in university fundraising in Canada.
When it was her turn to go to university, Pamela only considered McGill, where she enrolled in the Faculty of Arts and studied Canadian history.
“Laurier LaPierre was the director of my seminar, which we all loved because he was the co-host of This Hour Has Seven Days at that point,” she recalls, referring to the groundbreaking CBC public affairs program that premiered in 1964. “Everybody in the seminar class thought that we were really on the edge of whatever was developing in Canada.”
Pamela went on to University College London, earning a professional diploma in librarianship and archives. She returned to McGill to work as archivist at the McCord Museum which had just opened in the former McGill Student Union building. Following that, she joined the Osler Library where she became the History of Medicine Librarian.
“Wonderful people, wonderful students, great collection,” says Pamela, who spent 15 years at the Osler Library before retiring in 2011. “I enjoyed every second of it.”
Her husband Carman Miller is an emeritus professor of history and former dean of McGill’s Faculty of Arts.
“I practiced six years in Europe. And you arrive and they say, ‘Well, what university did you go to?’ And you say, McGill, and there’s your interview right there. It really is incredible the doors that it’s opened for me.”
Danielle Miller, counsel, Stikeman Elliott
One of the couple’s sons, Marc Miller, BCL’01, LLB’01, is a federal cabinet minister, while their daughter Danielle Miller, BA’91, BCL’01, LLB’01, practices law in Montreal. Danielle’s daughter Thea is continuing the family’s proud McGill tradition.
“The story goes that when I was a kid, I thought that people only ever worked at McGill,” says Danielle.
“When I went through school, it was always assumed that I would eventually go to McGill. I never thought of going elsewhere.”
She majored in humanistic studies and later returned to McGill for her law degrees.
“I loved my law studies. That was really where I began to appreciate the value of McGill and the draw of McGill because it was a smaller class – it wasn’t much over 100 students. People came from all over the country, some from other countries. The student body was absolutely fantastic,” says Danielle, who specializes in legal issues surrounding privacy, data protection, and cyber security at Stikeman Elliott.
“I practiced six years in Europe: in France, in Stockholm. And you arrive and they say, ‘Well, what university did you go to?’ And you say, McGill, and there’s your interview right there. It really is incredible the doors that it’s opened for me.”
Pamela still sits on the Osler Library’s Board of Curators, which was established by Sir William Osler – often called the “Father of Modern Medicine” – when he donated his collection to McGill.
With her granddaughter Thea on the cusp of attending McGill, Pamela says: “I’m very excited for her. I hope she takes part in everything that interests her.”
