Michael Martin Mills

Michael Martin Mills came to St. Martin’s in 1980 and recalls being impressed on that first summer Sunday that, other than an organist hidden behind a curtain, all the clergy and lay leaders of the liturgy were women. Having been reared a Presbyterian, he was confirmed here in 1981. He sang in the choir for 40 years and served on the Discernment/Rector Search Committee of 2009-10. He chaired the Music Director search committees that led to the hiring of Erik Myer and Tyrone Whiting. In the 1990s he had a key role in revising the church bylaws and served on the Outreach Committee under Scott O’Brien and Robert Tate, and now is a frequent Sunday lector. A native of Austin, Texas, he had a long career in journalism, including 27 years as an editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer. For two decades he was a member of the Philadelphia Singers Chorale and served on the organization’s board and as its general manager. He is an avid gardener, is the Royal Horticultural Society’s North American Registrar for the Genus Rhododendron and is on the landscape committee of Awbury Arboretum in Germantown. Michael is widowed, having lost his life partner, Randall Dalton, in 2016.