Remembering WCN founder Henry McMillan
By Jerry Grillo
Henry McMillan, who once described himself as, “a No. 2 pencil in a dot com world,” was well ahead of his time in other ways. For instance, he played a leading role in launching both the White County Development Authority and Chamber of Commerce, he was an early promoter of Alpine Helen, and he started the White County News.
“Dad was a firm believer in White County and he was always very proud of the newspaper,” said Mike McMillan, whose father died on August 31. Henry McMillan was 85.
“And he should have been proud,” Mike added. “I mean, how many businesses that started 57 years ago are still going strong?”
Henry and Linda McMillan, a young couple with a five-month-old baby — Mike — and $1,000 in borrowed money, published the first edition of the newspaper on May 30, 1968. And they did pretty much everything themselves at first.
“Dad sold the ads, wrote the stories, and delivered the paper,” daughter Susan Garrity said. “He’d walk his little route every week, visiting every business, and the community supported him.”
McMillan’s journey to becoming a local newspaper pioneer did not follow a straight line. His life was more interesting than that. Born in Demorest, he attended several colleges before studying journalism at the University of Georgia, where he graduated in 1964.
“He liked to joke that he was a ‘roads scholar,’” Susan said. “Because every time he got kicked off a school, he hit the road.”
En route, he lived an engaging and occasionally adventurous life. He did a hitch in the Naval Air Reserve, thanks to some rabbit thieves. McMillan had moved to Atlanta with a friend, and they didn’t have much money, but they both could hunt and they had killed some rabbits.
“They had the rabbits in a freezer and had gone off somewhere,” Susan recalled. “When they came home, they found that somebody had broken in and stolen the rabbits.”
Mike continued the story, through fits of laughter: “They were foodless and hungry and afraid they might get drafted and go to Vietnam, so they figured, ‘let’s just join the Naval Air Reserve so we won’t get drafted and we’ll have money for food.’”
Susan concluded, “So they went down to the recruiting office and joined that day.”
Though he sold the newspaper in 1970 — “They couldn’t say no to $25,000,” Susan said — McMillan never stopped investing in his community or his neighbors. In one of his first jobs after selling the paper, he’d grab a wad of money from his supervisor at the First National Bank in Habersham County, “and he’d drive around to all of the farmers, meet them in the field and do their agricultural and crop loans out of his Jeep,” said Mike. “In cash.”
McMillan’s biggest business passion was real estate development. He created a number of residential communities and a few campgrounds, and worked tirelessly with other civic leaders to attract industry to the area, build the county’s first industrial park, and create jobs to keep the county’s young workforce closer to home.
“I don’t think Dad ever had a bad day,” Mike said. “He believed in helping people, but he never wanted credit for it. He just thought it was the right thing to do.”
That attitude colored McMillan’s entire life. He loved hunting and fishing, was devoted to his family and his beloved White County farm. Even while considering his own farewell, McMillan emphasized joy, and couldn’t stomach the idea of people lining up solemnly at his coffin.
“No, that’s not Dad,” Susan said. “He wants food, music, and laughter. He wants a party with friends.”
And that’s what the family has planned, a fitting sendoff at the farm for White County’s newspaper pioneer and civic superman.