Honouring the Millers
The Millers are a very special couple to the Aoraki Foundation. They made a substantial gift to the South Canterbury community that now forms our General Impact Fund. You can read more about the Millers and their story here.
Late last year with the help of Liz Shea we tracked down the Miller headstone at Timaru Cemetery. It was not in a great state with broken concrete, moss and lichen. The Millers had no children and therefore no one left behind to maintain their headstone. It got us thinking that this responsibility now falls to us at the Aoraki Foundation. Our wonderful trustees and staff were quick to personally contribute to have the headstone restored to its original condition.
Last Friday (17th March) was the official unveiling of the restored headstone. A group of Aoraki Foundation supporters, staff, current and former trustees gathered to pay their respects to Queenie and Eric and honour the legacy they have left behind with their fund.
Sid McAuley who was one the of the Aoraki Foundation’s original trustees had also worked for the Millers when he was a young man, starting out in the transport industry. Sid shared some wonderful stories of his time with Eric and Queenie. Like everyone we have spoken with about the Millers, Sid said they really were wonderful people. He said he learnt a lot from Eric in the short time he worked for him, and Eric was also very supportive as Sid started his own fledgling business.
Liz Shea who had helped uncover much of the Millers past entertained us with the challenges of tracing people across multiple countries with misspelt names and often conflicting dates.
Chief Executive Richard Spackman spoke about how rewarding it has been uncovering the Miller story. On many occasions when he has told the Miller story someone in the audience is able to add a bit more information about Eric & Queenie. At one point we knew very little about the Millers and now we could almost write a book.
“For many of us the gift we leave to the world is our children, for the Millers it is their Fund” - Richard Spackman
The Aoraki Foundation would like to thank all the people that contributed towards the restoration of the Miller headstone. We would like to thank Les Jones from Aorangi Harding Memorials who did such a beautiful restoration job. Finally, and most importantly we want to thank Eric & Queenie, your gift to the community was significant and we are so privileged to be the guardians for many generations to come.
If you wish to know more about the Aoraki Foundation or starting your own legacy fund, please contact Richard Spackman at the Aoraki Foundation on richard@aorakifoundation.org.nz or 021 181 7141
About the Aoraki Foundation
The Aoraki Foundation is South Canterbury’s official Community Foundation. A Community Foundation is an infrastructure for giving and philanthropy. Using a smarter giving model, they provide a vehicle for generous donors to make everlasting gifts to their community. The Aoraki Foundation manages endowment funds worth more than $3 million dollars, they have funded the community to the tune of $1.75 million and supported fundraising efforts for large scale community projects. All of this has been made possible by the generosity of many individual and corporate donors. They are governed by a board of dedicated trustees who volunteer their time and expertise for the benefit of the community.