Papa Pays Off

Mathematician George Abram Miller never had any children of his own, but his students at the University of Illinois liked to call him "Papa." A stubby, white-thatched little man who always kept a box of nuts handy for the squirrels, he was an expert on the theory of finite groups, published more than 800 learned articles, owned one of the best private mathematical libraries in the U.S. But for all his brilliance, Papa Miller had a distracted air that sometimes seemed complete bewilderment. He was hopeless with a car, helpless with a furnace, and he invariably began his sentences with "Maybe I'm wrong, but . . ."

For all but a few of the 45 years that he lived in Urbana, he occupied the same $70-a-month flat. Whenever he emerged, he seemed to be wearing the same baggy suit and the same battered old hat. Once, when a prosperous former student spotted him shuffling across the campus, he turned to a companion and said: "You know, he was good to me. I think I'll send him $100."

In 1931, after he retired from his $6,000-a-year professorship, Papa Miller threw himself into a strange hobby. "Everything I have," he once told his lawyer, "I received from the university, and I want to repay my obligation." And so, knowing nothing at all about business,

Papa Miller began buying stocks, hoping that some day he would have something substantial to leave behind. He bought solely on intuition--shares in Southern Union Gas Co. (he happened to believe in natural gas), Pickering Lumber Corp. and Brink's. Inc. He bought some 12,000 shares of the American Furniture Mart Building Co. of Chicago, watched it climb from 37 to $12.50. By the time he died in 1951, he was the wonder of his brokers. "The old gentleman knew nothing about stocks," said one. "He bought what we call undervalued situations--a company which for some reason has fallen into disrepute temporarily, but which is fundamentally sound. He had absolute faith in the long-term growth of American business."

Last week, when his estate was finally settled, the University of Illinois announced that Papa Miller's faith had paid off. After $44,000 was paid to his relatives, the university netted a cool $912,570.11.

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