Member Spotlight

Paul Hart Miller

I joined the Community Foundation of SWLA as an annual member back in 2014, shortly after my dear friend Sara Judson became CEO. I was already a member of the Cape Cod Foundation in my adopted state of Massachusetts, and I was active on their scholarship committee, so I was familiar with the structure, funding mechanisms and understood the tremendous impact such foundations can have on their communities. It made sense to me that a great way that I could stay connected and help support worthy causes back in my native southwest Louisiana was to join the Foundation—and what an impact the Foundation has had in those years!

While most members support the Foundation through annual membership, such as I do, there are organizations and families who have established very worthy endowments (funds) to support and recognize causes that touch their hearts and help make a difference in the lives of people back home. Through the years, I have been drawn specifically to four specific funds and the initiatives they support.

The Hector San Miguel Fund, named in memory of my good friend – as well as the person responsible for my meeting my wife, Susan – supports efforts to promote and sustain local journalism through scholarships and educational programs. Last year the McLeod Lecture Series, with which I am involved, joined forces with the San Miguel Fund to provide a community forum that addressed current challenges and threats to local journalism and explored ways to keep local, independent journalism relevant and alive.

The Rosa Hart Endowment to Support Lake Charles Little Theatre was established eight years ago on the 90th anniversary of its founding in 1927 by my great aunt Rosa Hart and arts patron, Annabel Dees. Rosa would go on to be the unpaid director for some 30 years. Of course, the Little Theatre and arts in southwest Louisiana would be near and dear to my heart. LCLT is still going strong, as the board, thespians, and other volunteers are working hard to establish a new home since the theatre on Enterprise Boulevard was left in ruins in the aftermath of Hurricanes Laura and Delta in the fall of 2020. This fund provides financial support to help in the effort to assure that the “show still goes on for LCLT.”

Disaster Relief and the establishment of the Bayou Greenbelt and Just Imagine SWLA initiatives. The Community Foundation really proved its mettle with the immediate steps the board and staff took to partner with government agencies, disaster relief groups, philanthropic organizations, and other foundations to help the community at its lowest moment. Their work helped to get the word out to the world that these hurricanes left horrific damage to the communities we love and that immediate help was needed. It was good to know that the community foundation was a solid and trustworthy organization to accept and direct donations to make a real difference in recovery. In addition to making a donation to the Foundation, Susan and I gathered items we no longer needed that we had around the house and held a yard sale in our front yard with the proceeds going to the foundation’s relief fund. Many neighbors gave us checks or gave directly online to the foundation. It was heartwarming and meaningful.

There was no doubt that the area would rebuild—but how? With landmarks, oak trees, homes and businesses, power grids, human lives damaged or taken away, the community was certainly at ground zero. It was the Community Foundation that took the lead to partner with recovery and environmental design experts to arrive at a sound program for rebuilding—and rebuilding better—thus the birth of Bayou Greenbelt and Just Imagine Southwest Louisiana. Through solid citizen input and expert advice and counsel, the Community Foundation is the point of light for these exciting efforts.

The Autism Services of SWLA Fund was established to support an agency and a cause that touches my family very deeply. Since April is Autism Awareness Month, I think it most appropriate that we take a moment to recognize the fact that autism is so much more prevalent today than ever before. Most everyone knows of or is related to someone on the autism spectrum. That was not the case back in the early 1960s when my brother David was diagnosed with autism. The diagnosis was scary and so much was not known about autism. Unfortunately, many children were originally misdiagnosed with other types of developmental disabilities, which further frustrated and upset families who were looking for the right answers and direct help for their children. Imagine the horror in having a doctor say they have no idea if anyone with autism would live to become an adult. My mother, Ann Hart Miller, was one of the ones who got that message. She was not the only one receiving that message. Another child from Lake Charles, Joseph Sullivan was diagnosed with autism at about the same time. Both he and David were born within a week of one another in Lake Charles. Both were diagnosed between 18 months and two years, after showing signs of withdrawal and they were both non-verbal.

Fortunately, David and Joseph have both recently celebrated their 65th birthdays and they are doing quite well. David left Lake Charles in 1963 and spent his formative years at the Brown Schools in Austin and San Marcos, Texas, where they were specializing in autism research and studies. David was receiving some of the best care that was available at the time. He later moved to one of the first group homes established by CARC in Lake Charles in 1984—where he still lives today.

Joseph and his parents, the late Ruth Christ Sullivan, PhD and William Sullivan, PhD, moved to Huntington, WV in the late 1960s. Ruth Sullivan was a powerhouse. She dedicated her life to not only helping Joseph, but she worked tirelessly to make a difference for others living with developmental disabilities. She led the charge for advocacy at the national, state and local levels. She fought to get laws enacted to recognize autism as a health condition and to break down access barriers to much needed research and occupational support for citizens with autism. She was a founder of the National Society for Autistic Children in 1965, now known as The Autism Society, which is now the oldest and largest grassroots autism organization, which  nationally serves over half a million people per year. In Huntington, she created the Autism Services Center (ASC) in 1979 to help ensure necessary services were provided for that population.

Back home, my mother and Geri Christ Landry, Ruth Sullivan’s sister and a dedicated educator in the Calcasieu Parish school system, and other concerned parents brainstormed with Ruth to identify ways to expand services for the developmentally disabled throughout southwest Louisiana. Concepts of the ASC model were adapted here in the creation of a new agency, SWLA Health Counseling Services, which provided services and direct support to those with autism, cerebral palsy and epilepsy and their families. Some of you might remember the annual telethons that were held on KPLC, with Warren David and Bob Forrest as emcees. The telethons not only helped to raise funds that helped support the agency, but they also served to raise awareness of resources available for those with developmental disabilities and their families.  

Some years later, realizing the need to expand residential and personal care services to support and meet the needs of adults with autism, four determined women, my mother, along with Geri Landry, Marian Hartwell Cannon and Karen McComb Duhon, banded together to establish a new agency. In 2003, Autism Services of Southwest Louisiana/Direct Care, Inc. was established. The agency provides homes that fit into neighborhoods as well as hire and train staff to care for and meet the daily needs of adults with autism. With the opening of their first home in 2009, they now have six homes and growing. My mother was honored posthumously with the naming of a home in her memory in 2015. My brother David, Geri and I visited the Ann Hart Miller home when I was back home a couple of years ago. It was so touching to visit with the residents and to see a picture of her smiling face in the entry hall.

Great strides continue to be made through strong partnerships with school systems, the southwest Louisiana legislative delegation, cities and towns, corporations and individuals to build more support services and to better integrate citizens with autism into the mainstream of society. In 2008, the establishment of the St. Nicholas Center for Children, a nonprofit therapy center that provides services to children diagnosed with autism and developmental delays, was another milestone in advancing care and support in southwest Louisiana. Around that same time, McNeese State University through its Department of Psychology and Counseling established the McNeese Autism Program which provides hands-on experience in research, treatment, planning and service delivery for undergraduate and graduate students.

Through the support given to the Autism Services of SWLA Community Foundation Fund, and the services offered by the St. Nicholas Center, CARC, the McNeese Autism Program, the state and other government agencies, public school systems, and the loving care and the work of staff, volunteers and friends in the community, SWLA is truly a welcoming, supportive community for citizens with autism. I am told that SWLA is a draw for families to drive to and in some cases, move to, in order to receive the best possible care and resources they can find for their family member. That is something for which we can all be proud.

For these reasons, I recognize and celebrate the value of the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana and I applaud their efforts. I am proud to be a member.