FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) – Well-known Arkansas poet Miller Williams died at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville on Jan. 1, officials say.
Born in Hoxie, Ark. in 1930, he was a poet, editor, critic and translator, according to a post on PoetryFoundation.Org.
Miller earned his undergraduate degree in biology at Arkansas State University and his graduate degree in zoology from the University of Arkansas, the post states.
He wrote, translated and edited more than 30 books during his lifetime and read one of his poems (“Of History and Hope”) at President Bill Clinton’s 1997 inauguration, according to the post.
Bernie Madison is a friend and former colleague of Williams. He said he was a gentle and quiet person, and saw things that very few people ever saw.
“He could make things that seemed very simple, profound and deep and he could turn an every day occurrence like a caterpillar walking across the lawn, a blade of grass, into a poem,” Madison said.
Miller’s daughter, Lucinda Williams, is a Grammy-award-winning musician. Madison said Miller and Lucinda performed together at the Walton Arts Center a few years ago.
“It’s unique, nobody else does this, you have this father and this daughter, and it was clearly a special relationship between the two of them,” Madison said.
Madison said Williams isn’t really gone—that he will live on through his words.
“You don’t have Miller in reality, but you always have his poems,” Madison said.
University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart issued the following statement on Miller’s death:
“Miller Williams was an icon among our academic community. He was an amazing teacher and extraordinary writer and poet. His presence was felt across campus and indeed the entire state. Our nation has lost a true talent and an incredible human being. We mourn the loss of this exceptional person who brought joy and light to so many.”
Davis McCombs, director of the creative writing and translation programs at the University of Arkansas, released the following statement of Miller’s death:
“As a poet, a translator, a teacher, Miller Williams helped shape our creative writing program. He established our degree in literary translation–still considered one of the most innovative features of our program–and he brought our university and our state to the national stage. It’s remarkable that this writer–a poet of the local and of the personal–came, in the course of his illustrious career, to speak for the nation. It confirms, I think, the humility and compassion and great resonance of his work to our daily lives. Our program, indeed Arkansas itself, owes much to Miller’s voice and vision.”
