Judge Theodore McMillian was born January 28, 1919 in St. Louis, Missouri to the union of Joycie Ann McDuffy and Theodore McMillian and was the eldest son of 10 children. He was educated in the ST. Louis public schools and graduated from Licoln University (B.S. 1941) and St. Louis University School of Law (J.D 1949, first in class). Judge McMillian served in the United States Army Signal Corps from 1942 to 1946 where he attained the rank of lieutenant.
Judge McMillian was admitted to practice law in Missouri in 1949 and was a founding partner in the law firm o fLynch and McMillian. He served as Assistant Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis, Missouri, in the office of the Honorable Edward L. Dowd, from 1953 to 1956. In 1956, he was appointed by Governor Phil M. Donnelly to be a judge for the Circuit Court for the City of St. Louis, where he served until 1972. In 1972, he was appointed by Governor Warren E. Hearnes to the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri, Eastern Division, where he served until 1978. Judge McMillian was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the Eighth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals on September 23, 1978.
Over the years Judge McMilian served as a faculty member, associate professor or lecturer at the following colleges and universities: St. Louis University Law School, University of Missouri at St. Louis, Webster College, National College of Juvenile Justice at the University of Nevada, and the National College of State Trial Judges at the University of Nevada at Reno. Judge McMillian was a member of the Lawyers Association of the City of St. Louis, the Mound City Bar Association, the Missouri Bar Association, and the National Bar Association.
Additionally Judge McMillian served as a board member of the following civic organizations: the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges (past president), the American Judicature Society, the John Jay Steering Committee of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the Missouri Council of Law Enforcement Administration, and the National Advisory Board, the National Council of Crime and Delinquency, the Missouri Social Welfare Association, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis (past president), the St. Louis Minority Economic Development Agency (chairperson), the President’s Council of St. Louis University, the Board of Trustees of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Advisory Council of the Danforth Foundation. Judge McMillain also served as the first board chairman of the Human Development Corporation, the local anti-poverty agency, from 1965 to 1977 and was a member of the Board of Catholic Charities of the City of St. Louis and the Executive Committee of the St. Louis Crime Commission. He aslo served as president and founder of the Herber Hoover Boys and Girls Club of St. Louis.
Judge McMillian was a member o fPhi Beta Kappa and Alpha Sigma Nu, the National Jesuit Honor Society. He received the Alumni Merit Award from St. Louis University, the Award of Honor in the Jurist Division from the St. Louis Lawyers Association, a Doctor of Humanities from Lincoln University of Jefferson City, the Universtiy of Missouri at St. Louis, and Washington Universtiy in St. Louis; a Doctor of Laws from St. Louis University and Harris-Stowe State College, and the Herber harley Award from the American Judicature Society. In 1992 Judge McMillian was inducted into the National Bar Association Hall of Fame and was the recipeient of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis’ Founders Award. In 1996, Judge McMillian was the recipient of the Distinguished Lawyer Award fromt eh Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and was named an Honorary Dipolomate of the American Board of Trial Advocates. In 2003, Judge McMillian was awarded the Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association.
Judge McMillian departed this life on January 18 2006 at Barnes-Jewish Hosptial at 6:45 a.m. He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Minnie Foster, his son Theodore McMillian Jr., and his three brothers Augustus, Charles, and Henry.
Judge McMillian leaves to treasure his memory a devoted friend Dorothy McMurtry; daughter Cheryl Green and her husband of Houston, daughter Donna Parker of Nashville, and three grand-children; five sisters, Midred Carr, Eunice Miles and her husband Theodore, Delores Reynolds of St. Louis, Marie Wilcher of Omaha, and Jeanette cage of Chicago; one brother Edward McMillian of Seattle; sisters-in-law Carlleen Parker and Bernice Grant; and a host of nieces, nephews, and friends.
