Ed Mills
Profile -- (Spring 2001 Newsletter)
[interview below]
 Ed
Mills is a believer. He didn't use to be. Back in 1975, the
idea of sending his children to a start-up Catholic liberal
arts college in California was unsettling to the man who had
founded what would become the nation's 18th largest chemical
distribution company. But four of his children are now Thomas
Aquinas College graduates, and he is an enthusiastic member
of the Board of Governors.
Ed was born and raised in chemicals, as it were. His father
worked at the Shell Oil refinery in Roxana, Illinois, a company
town in downstate Illinois that so dominated the 1,200 souls
who lived there that even the high school was known as the
"Shells."
One summer between his sophomore and junior years of high
school, he was working as a counselor at a local Boy Scout
Camp. At the staff cookout and hayride to close the camp down
for the summer, the young Eagle Scout met a young Catholic
girl from nearby Alton, Illinois, Dolores Springman.
Dolores was one of eight children from a devout Catholic
family. Ed was an only child from a non-practicing Presbyterian
family. Ed and Dolores began dating, rival high-schools apart,
over the next two years and through their graduation in 1948.
With hopes of becoming a chemist, Ed went to the University
of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, to pursue studies in chemistry
and mathematics. Dolores enrolled at St. Mary's College at
Notre Dame. The Catholic example of Dolores and her family
left its mark on Ed. By Christmas break in his freshman year
he entered the Church.
Dolores left college to teach kindergarten at her parish
school back in Alton. In 1950, at the end of his sophomore
year of college, Ed and Dolores were married. By his senior
year of college, Ed had spent enough time in the laboratory
to see that a career there was not for him. He took a job
with Shell's Chemical Division as a sales correspondent for
the Chicago office. After a year, he then trained at Shell's
technical service laboratory in New Jersey, where he acquired
a practical knowledge about Shell products, organic chemicals,
solvents, resins, and plastics. This was in the post-World
War II heyday of chemical development, and Ed was at the heart
of the technological boom with a major manufacturer of synthetic
chemicals.
Ed resumed sales work in Chicago a year later. Then after
transfers to Milwaukee and St. Louis, he decided to go into
business for himself. It was a big risk, but Dolores, who
was then expecting their eighth child, encouraged him to make
the leap.
They returned to Wisconsin and Ed and Dolores started a chemical
distribution business, Milwaukee Solvents and Chemicals, working
out of their home. Ed's niche was in fulfilling "rush
orders" and in using his knowledge about the products
to give him an edge over competition. Dolores would take calls
from customers and handle all the orders and bookings. Ed
would solicit customers and deliver the orders. "I was
changing clothes constantly. I'd be in a business suit with
a customer one minute, and then in jeans and work shoes the
next, so I could package the products, jump in a truck, and
deliver the orders."
Their partnership worked well. After six months, they hired
their first employee. After two years, they moved to an outside
office. In 1970, they opened a distribution facility in Minneapolis.
Four years later, they opened one in Des Moines.
Eventually they diversified into contract manufacturing and
made such household items as shampoos, conditioners, bath
and floor cleansers, cosmetics, solutions for baby wipes,
deionized water, even "teat dip" for dairy farmers.
He had also found a niche in reclamation efforts, taking used
chemicals and making them reusable through chemical processing.
His customers included industry giants such as American Can
Corporation, Minnesota Mining, S.C. Johnson, Valspar, and
Pittsburgh Paint & Glass.
Meanwhile, as chairman of the board and CEO of Milsolv Companies,
Mills had become an industry leader. He was President of the
Wisconsin Paint and Coatings Association and Director of the
Affiliated Chemical Group, an insurance association.
Mills built a plant to make fuel-grade ethyl alcohol. By
1998, his company (now known as Milsolv Companies) had grown
to 160 employees and was doing $112 million in business with
active business concerns in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.
Dolores was with him every step of the way. "She's been
the best business partner I've ever had."
But this man of business and technical work had little interest
in Catholic liberal education until he started seeing the
effects it had on his children and met their friends. Over
time, he became a fervent advocate of Thomas Aquinas College
and in 1992 joined its board of governors. (He previously
served as a director of the Wisconsin Federation of Independent
Colleges.)
Ed and Dolores have ten children, four of whom are graduates
of the College: Julie Mills Teichert (1979), Anne Mills Miller
(1980), Jim Mills (1981), and John Mills (1988). In 1998,
Ed sold the business and retired. Ed and Dolores now live
half-time in Wisconsin and half-time in Southern California.
Ed is a Knight, and Dolores a Lady, in the Equestrian Order
of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a distinguished Catholic
fraternal society. He has been a member of the Knights of
Columbus all his adult life, and was a parish council member
at St. Peter's Church in Slinger, Wisconsin. Ed and Dolores
also own a small Catholic bookstore in Milwaukee, Catholic
Books & Gifts.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Spring 2001
Interview with Ed Mills:
Q. How did your children come to attend the College?
Dolores was the first to become aware of it. Back in the
early 1970s, she was staffing a booth at a Catholic conference
in Minneapolis next to a fellow who was staffing a booth from
Thomas Aquinas College. That fellow was Dennis Koller, who
was then the College’s Admissions Director. They got
to talking and Dolores became very interested in the school.
Our daughter, Julie, had just finished nursing school and
was on a one-year waiting list for admission to St. Louis
University Medical School.
Dolores suggested to Julie that, since she had to wait a
year to get into medical school, she might as well spend the
year out in California at Thomas Aquinas College. Julie took
her up on it. She stayed all four years. The irony is, that
while she never did go on to medical school, she met and married
a fellow student at the College who did, Dr. Jonathan Teichert
[class of ’76].
Q. And other of your children followed her?
Julie would come home during the breaks and talk about her
experience there. That interested three other of my children,
Anne, Jim, and John. They could see that she was getting something
interesting and unique.
Q. What was your reaction to this at the time?
I wasn’t completely sold on it. I had spent all of my
life in a technical industry and I had concerns about the
practical value of this education. I thought, sure, it might
be fine to sit around and talk philosophy, but I couldn’t
really see how one might get a job doing that.
Q. How did you come to change your views about this?
As time went on, I could see the effect this education was
having on my children’s lives. Also, I met a fair number
of their schoolmates. Our house was centrally-located in the
midwest and at the holidays we often had a dozen or so students
stopping by. I was always very impressed with these students.
One time, I recall, I came home and found a group of them
having an intense philosophical conversation in our living
room. I was very impressed, not only with how they expressed
themselves, but how earnest they were about the intellectual
life. I eventually began to see that this was the norm among
them.
I started thinking, too, that although I had taken all sorts
of mathematics and technical courses in college, I certainly
wasn’t using any of this knowledge, and frankly, hadn’t
thought about that material in ages. And yet, I was able to
build a successful business. So I thought, it couldn’t
hurt to have my kids get such a classical education. They’d
still be able to pursue diverse employment options or advanced
education.
Q. But you eventually became an enthusiastic supporter?
Oh, sure! I started to appreciate that the skills they were
learning, the ability to think, to start from principles,
was something they could take with them anywhere in life and
do anything they wanted to do. The skills you acquire at Thomas
Aquinas College will stay with you for life. Plus, I’ve
come to see that you’re on this earth for such a limited
time. You really have to make the most out of it and pursue
those things in life that are infinitely valuable. This education
has given my kids such a deeper appreciation for their faith.
As a parent, it’s been a beautiful thing to behold.
Q. What are your children doing now?
Julie, I mentioned earlier, is a home-schooling mother of
eight children. Her oldest son, Henry, begins his first year
at the College this fall. Jim works for one of my former companies,
Brenntag, in Minneapolis, where he’s the marketing rep
for fuel-grade ethyl alcohol. He and his wife have one child.
My daughter Anne, is married living in Maryland and is home-schooling
her four children; she taught school before getting married.
My son, John, is single, and is a sales rep at a camera store
and does free-lance photography.
Q. Have you been surprised by the school’s impact?
Yes. I never would have guessed that the College would receive
such a high degree of recognition and have its fame spread
throughout the country. This is a very big country and you
wouldn’t think that 40-some graduates a year would make
much difference. But they do. The College has become the powerhouse
of Catholic liberal arts colleges and you can definitely see
the effect its graduates are having on society and the Church.
Reminds me of that song, “Start me with ten who are stout-hearted
men and I’ll soon give you ten-thousand more.” Love
of God is the heart of Thomas Aquinas College and love of
God grows there.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Spring 2000
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