Joel Miller led many lives. Born October 10, 1837 in Athol, Massachusetts, Miller graduated from Williams College in 1864. He went on to become a Baptist minister before taking the position of principal of the Field High School in Leominster. Eighteen years later, Miller purchased the Leominster Enterprise and became its President and Editor-in-Chief until 1919.

But it was Miller’s three short years (1893-1896) as a State Senator that marked his crucial role in the history of Fitchburg State. Miller sat as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Education. In that capacity, he heard testimonies and petitions to establish a normal school in Fitchburg from Joseph Edgerly. Various other towns were vying for a normal school as well.

While these hearings closed in February of 1894, a bill to open more normal schools did not pass until June 4 of that year after three readings in the House and another three in the Senate. When Senator Lawrence attempted to substitute the bill with a different House draft, Senator Miller rallied opposition and pushed forward a motion to vote on the standing bill, which passed 20 to 9. The Fitchburg Sentinel called this Senator Miller’s “first great legislative victory” and described him as “by all odds the most interesting speaker in the Massachusetts senate, in a literary way the most equipped, and the most persuasive and the best natured.”