MERCEDESE MAE MILLER

was born in Marshalltown, Iowa on July 7, 1942, to Mae and Joe Miller. She passed away on April 1, 2008, at home with her family in Green Valley.

Mercedese graduated from Bloomfleld High School in Bloomfield, Iowa, and went on to Drake University where she earned B.A. in journalism. Later, after she had realized her dream of moving to Washington, D.C., where “all the important things happened,” she earned an MBA from American University.

Mercedese worked for the Organization for Economic Opportunity in Des Moines, Iowa and in Denver, Colo. before moving to Washington where she would spend 42 years of her career.

Disabled since birth, Mercedese never acknowledged nor allowed her physical disability to be a limiting factor; instead, it served to make her aware of and committed to removing barriers for others.

As Vice President of Social, Educational, Research and Development Corporation, she was involved in a variety of programs to create access to appropriate education, employment and health care. Among her accomplishments there were the design of Job Clubs to teach the broad skills needed to acquire and retain jobs and development of a program for early release of felons from prison to community-based rehabilitation programs; these became models for similar programs elsewhere in the country.

Mercedese went to Action, the United States government agency that served as the umbrella agency for Peace Corps and Vista during the 1980’s and early 1990’s; one of the early and significant programs on which she worked was the International Year of the Child, an important endeavor that would inspire another important project. In her final years with the agency, she coordinated all the volunteer programs for Vista, the domestic arm of Action.

She also served on the Board of Directors of the National Organization on Disability where she and Allen Reich, its executive director, worked on a major project, The Year of the Disabled, which would raise awareness of the needs of the disabled and pave the way for passage of the landmark legislation that would change how Americans would accommodate the disabled: The Americans with Disabilities Act.

Her last years took a slightly different focus. Instead of working on intervention programs, she established Business and Technical Services, a company that involved her in providing support to agencies that addressed the issues of interest to her. For years, she acted under contract, as the recording secretary for the Radiation Safety Committee of NIH, where she was known for her commitment to schedules, accuracy, sense of humor and kindness.

In 2006, she moved from her home in Chevy Chase, Md. to Green Valley to live with her mother and sister, who gave her good company, love and excellent care through the final struggle with the cancer that had been diagnosed in 2000.

Mercedese was preceded in death by her father Joe Miller in 1999 and is survived by her mother, Mae Miller, who was her staunch supporter her whole life; and her sister Mary Jo whom she named and loved and confided in all her life.

She is also survived by her aunt Maxine Miller of Greenville, S.C.; her cousins Rosemary (Wayne) Schroeder of Green Valley, Sandra (Bob) Klauer of Prescott, Marc Miller of Bloomfield, Iowa, Vicki (Robert) Sowinski of Greenville, Dana (Craig) Daves of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Darla (Gregg) Peterson also of Cedar Rapids; and a number of second cousins.

Memorials may be made to: The Gynecologic Cancer Foundation, 230 W. Monroe, Suite 2528, Chicago, IL 60606; Carondelet Hospice and Palliative Care, 630 N. Alvernon Way, Suite 361, Tucson, AZ 85711; or Valley Presbyterian Church, 2800 S. Camino del Sol, Green Valley, AZ 85614.