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St. Olaf to honor Psychology Department founder

By David Gonnerman '90
March 18, 2010
"Why shouldn't I give to the only college that happens to carry my name?" asks Olaf Millert who, along with his late wife, has a long history of giving to St. Olaf.

For Olaf Millert, the emeritus faculty member who founded the St. Olaf Psychology Department in 1960, helping students is a normal part of life. The 85-year-old still lives within walking distance of campus and keeps in touch with current St. Olaf students — some of whom he treats as if they were his children. Millert's concern for students also is reflected in his record of giving to the college.

St. Olaf was informed recently that Millert is planning to leave his estate to the college. This gift, along with a history of establishing various endowments for the college, has prompted St. Olaf to name a laboratory space in Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences in honor of Millert and his late wife, Juta Rae Millert '65. The naming ceremony will take place in Regents Hall Monday.

The Millerts began giving financially to St. Olaf when they established the Gordon Allport award, named for a founder of personality psychology and Millert's mentor. The financial award is given annually to a junior psychology major. And the Olaf and Juta Millert Endowment, established in honor of late Estonian President Lennart Meri after his visit to St. Olaf in 2000, provides funds for select students from Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

Millert's most recent gift to the college established the Juta R. Millert Memorial Speaker Series in Psychology that will support an annual lecture.

The Estonian immigrant who left a war-ravaged Europe to earn a degree from Harvard says he's just repaying the kindness that others have shown him throughout his life. "This has been our attempt to help, financially and otherwise, young people of different backgrounds," says Millert as he shows pictures and tells stories about the many students who have kept in touch with him over the decades.

"And why shouldn't I give to the only college that happens to carry my name?" he asks with a grin.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.