Zell Miller remembered as a great friend of Columbus

Zell Miller may have been a mountain man, raised in the north Georgia hills of Young Harris, but throughout his political career he was a friend and supporter of Columbus and the Chattahoochee Valley, said those who knew him well.

Miller, 86, died on Friday.

Retired Synovus Chairman Jimmy Blanchard had a long and close relationship with Miller that dated back decades. Blanchard was the state chairman of Miller’s U.S. Senate campaign in the special election after he was appointed to fill the vacant term in 2000 of Paul Coverdell, who died in office.

“I have been thinking a lot about Zell this morning,” Blanchard said. “We have had a long line of excellent governors of this state and he certainly stood out in that line. He had a lot of respect for Columbus and paid attention to our needs.”

Rep. Calvin Smyre, a Columbus Democrat finishing his 44th year as a state legislator, was close to Miller politically and personally. Smyre can point to bricks and mortar as an example of Miller’s commitment to Columbus.

“In the 1990s, I was the head of the project development team for the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts,” Smyre said.

The RiverCenter opened in 2003, long after Miller left office, but Miller was a catalyst, Smyre said.

“Were it not for Zell and his support of that project, it would not have happened,” Smyre said. “We had a lot of loops to go through to get that project going, and he was there every step of the way helping and supporting us.”

U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1994 as a Republican, and Miller was governor during four of his six years in the General Assembly. Land said he quickly discovered what others already knew.

“He was a good friend of Columbus, that is for sure,” Land said. “Whenever Columbus had a project, he was usually a supporter of that. He was a strong supporter of the Columbus business community. He liked the way Columbus approached public-private partnerships. When the state was putting up money for something in Columbus, there was private money, as well. That appealed to him.”

Miller could also look beyond the party divide, Land said.

“He looked at ideas,” Land said. “If he thought it was a good idea and you were on the other side, he wouldn’t oppose it. Everything was not purely partisan politics to him.”

It was the way the Columbus of the 1990s conducted its business that also appealed to Miller, Smyre said.

“I was on many an airplane with Zell when we would start talking about Columbus,” Smyre said. “He often said that when Columbus spoke, it spoke with one voice. And that’s one of the reasons Columbus got a lot of funding. Zell was impressed that in Columbus, the Chamber of Commerce, the city and the state were all on the same page. It wasn’t that way everywhere.”

Attorney Pete Robinson, a Columbus resident who is now the Atlanta managing partner of Troutman Sanders LLP, had a special relationship with Miller. It started in 1976 when Robinson was a student at Emory University and Miller was the state’s lieutenant governor as well as one of Robinson’s political science professors. In 1990, the same year Miller became governor, Robinson was elected to the state Senate and as a freshman senator became one of Miller’s floor leaders.

Robinson knew the governor — and the professor.

“The professor was very practical and taught practical politics – he taught us who was on the Public Service Commission from Tifton,” Robinson said. “But as the governor, he was a visionary. And he was able to act on that vision and get others to act with him.”

During his career, Miller earned the nickname “Zig Zag Zell,” because his stance on issues could fluctuate.

“What was his greatest strength, others tried to label as his weakness,” Robinson said. “He could address issues in a way that allowed him to change his mind and make the best possible decisions.”

Robinson is a trustee of the The Zell Miller Institute for Public Policy, a foundation that was formed in 2017. The institute focuses on bipartisan policies, promotes Miller’s legacy, encourages young people to pursue public service, and raises funds for candidates seeking election.

Miller was also loyal. In 2001 when Land was nominated by President Georgia W. Bush for a federal judgeship, Miller was there to lend a hand despite the appearance of a party divide.

“The Senate was controlled by Democrats and they controlled the confirmation process,” Land said. “Sen. Miller was the one who introduced me to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He did that for me then, and I will never forget that.”

Former Ledger-Enquirer reporter and columnist Richard Hyatt literally wrote the book on Miller. His 1997 book, “Zell: The Governor who Gave Georgia HOPE,” was published by Mercer University press.

Hyatt spent much of Friday morning thinking about Miller, a man he knew well through political reporting and the biography process.

“The thing I was thinking about this morning is that I hope no obituary writer calls him a former Marine in any of the stories about his death,” Hyatt said. “I learned that lesson the hard way. One of the things that he taught me was once a Marine, always a Marine.”

That military service was at the foundation of the way Miller governed, first in the General Assembly, then as 16 years as lieutenant governor, eight years as governor and a stint in the U.S. Senate.

“Look at the book he wrote, “Corps Values,” Hyatt said.

The values Miller learned in the service included neatness, responsibility, persistence, discipline, shame, brotherhood, courage, achievement, punctuality, respect, pride and loyalty.

“Everything he learned as a young Marine became his Corps Values and he wanted the state of Georgia to share those values,” Hyatt said.

Smyre worked with Miller as the chairman of the House committee that oversaw higher education to help pass the legislation that enabled the Georgia HOPE Scholarship.

Smyre said that one of Miller's favorite quotes was about seeing a turtle on a fence post: If you see that, you know the turtle didn't get there alone, someone put it there. It is a Miller story that Smyre often repeats.

“He was always trying to tell the people ... that all of his success was because of them,” Smyre said. “In other words, he didn't become lieutenant governor, he didn't become governor, he didn't become senator by himself ... he always gave the tribute and deference to those who helped him along his political career.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2018 at 3:50 PM with the headline "Zell Miller remembered as a great friend of Columbus."