Posted on April 6, 2011 at 10:58 AM by Global Reach
Cap E. Miller - Keokuk County Superintendent of Schools (1903–1909)
4-H Efforts: Cap organized first county-wide boys agricultural club and girls home culture club in Iowa, started a self-supporting county school education fair and involved Iowa State College professors in local educational programs.
Significant Honors:
- Inducted to Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame 2003
- North Dakota Agricultural College, Economics Department Head
- Executive Secretary of Northwest Farm Management Association (1926-1951) and National Polled Cattle Club
- Nationally recognized Chautauqua speaker
As county Superintendent of Schools, Miller urged his teachers to promote clubs and teach farm subjects. He organized a train trip attended by 1400 people to Iowa State College in Ames to learn about livestock and farm/home economics equipment. He was one of the first to organize youth exhibitions for boys and girls to demonstrate what they had learned in their clubs. Miller's work fostered many of the teaching tools of today's 4-H program. He was inclusive of both boys and girls, and engaged the experts of Iowa State College, helping students learn from land-grant college research.
“Cap Miller is one of the most original and most forceful educators in the state. He gets a personal hold upon the children of the county and the people he meets, not by any artificial effort to please, but by the sheer power of his earnestness, his honesty, his all-compelling, obstacle-removing force.” The Iowa State Register
