Real estate developer Frank Miller was among the first to tap the potential of properties away from the Liberty Square, including the Seaport development.

In the current edition of The Princeton Review’s guidebook to “The 351 Best Colleges,”William Jewell ranks in the number one position for “town/gown” relations–the intangible relationship between an institution of higher learning and the community in which it is located. Longtime Liberty resident Frank Miller sensed that special relationship between the city and the small liberal arts College on the hill long ago. In recognition of that bond, Miller’s estate plan included a sizeable gift to establish an endowed scholarship at the College. Miller,who died in 1988, was an entrepreneur and a real estate developer who realized early on the potential for growth and commercial development that existed within the Liberty community. He built Liberty’s first shopping center away from the Square on 152 Highway just east of 291 Highway. He later added the Westowne and Seaport office developments and the Westwoods residential community. “Frank was a pioneer in Liberty real estate,” says Ron Mullennix, the College’s attorney and an acquaintance of Frank Miller. “He began development on the western edge of town when it was a radical notion to have businesses located away from the Square. But Frank sensed that there would be opportunities for development outside of the traditional business district.”

Mullennix remembers Miller as an excellent businessman and a lover of the game of golf. Miller, who graduated from Liberty High School, attended William Jewell for one year before embarking on his business career. “He had a genuine appreciation for the importance of the College to the community,” Mullennix says.

“He was a visionary,” says Betty Thompson, former executive director of the Liberty Area Chamber of Commerce.“He took a corn field and turned it into the Westowne development. He was always very supportive of the business community and anxious for Liberty to grow.”

Jewell alumnus Ray Brock was a longtime associate of Miller’s who remembers Frank as “a very creative person. He did wonderful woodworking, so he was an artistic guy as well as a good athlete.He was very imaginative, and always ahead of his time.”

The gift will establish an endowed scholarship in Frank Miller’s name benefiting graduates of Liberty High School who will be chosen by the mayor of Liberty, the president of the Liberty School Board and the president of the Liberty Area Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Gordon Kingsley,William Jewell College president at the time the trust was established and now principal at Harlaxton College in Grantham, England, remembers Frank Miller fondly and applauds his generosity to the College. “Frank Miller was a quiet man and a good man who cared for the things that truly matter in a community,” Dr. Kingsley says. “When president of Jewell, I would call on Frank to ask his help. He would be courteous and supportive, but he never let on that he was leaving a sizeable gift to his College.Now, he continues his legacy of good in a most remarkable way.”