LWC Community Dedicates Robert L. Miller Drive

Family members of the late Robert L. Miller are joined by LWC President William T.
Luckey Jr.. From left: Sara Judd of Campbellsville, Ky., granddaughter; Luckey;
MaKaylee Decker of Columbia, great-granddaughter; Jeania Miller of Campbellsville,
wife; Darla Decker of Greensburg, Ky., daughter; and Dana Judd of Campbellsville, daughter.

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- The late Robert L. Miller made history on April 24, 2008, at Lindsey Wilson College when he bought a piece of property on Kentucky Highway 80 just inside the eastern city limits of Columbia and donated it to the college.

Less than two years later, the property became what is now the entrance to Lindsey Wilson Sports Park, 820 Hanley Lane.

On Saturday evening, members of the LWC community gathered with family members of the late eight-term Campbellsville, Ky., mayor to commemorate Miller's contributions to the college by naming the entrance road to the park Robert L. Miller Drive.

Miller was mayor of Campbellsville from 1966-98, and he also served on the Lindsey Wilson Board of Trustees until his death in February 2011 at the age of 83.

As LWC President William T. Luckey Jr. recalled at Saturday's ceremony, the college's trustees had acquired about 20 acres of property on the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway to build a sports park, but there was one challenge: there was not an entrance to the property.

"Our challenge was we didn't have access to it," Luckey said. "So in order to get to it, at the (April 24, 2008) trustee meeting Mayor Miller spoke up and pledged to buy a piece of property that was for sale and give it to the college. … I was stunned -- I wasn't asking anybody to pay for it, but he stepped up and wrote a check."

Miller's gift had two consequences, Luckey said. It provided a public access road into Lindsey Wilson Sports Park, and it also allowed the sports park to have three sports venues: Blue Raider Stadium, the home of LWC football and track & field; Egnew Park, home of LWC baseball; and Blue Raider Field, home of LWC softball.

"That allowed us to have access to what is the best stadium in all the Mid-South Conference," Luckey said. "(Without Miller's gift), we would not be able to have our softball out here because we wouldn't have had enough land to get our softball field at this park."