UNKNOWN COUNTY OHIO - OBITUARY:  Milner, Charles F.
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Times-Gazette
April 2, 1998

Charles F. Milner
   A pioneer in audio-visual education and an innovative leader in adult continuing 
education, Charles F. ("Charlie") Milner, 88, passed away on March 28, 1998, after an 
extended struggle with pancreatic cancer.
   Exuberantly humorous, genuinely friendly, and unfailingly generous, Charlie Milner 
had been affectionately appreciated by neighbors, friends, and family during the seven 
decades he lived in North Carolina. A long-time resident of Chapel Hill, where he helped 
implement racial desegregation of the public schools, Milner retired in 1975 as a 
professor and administrator at the University of North Carolina. Milner in recent years 
had been a permanent resident of Emerald Isle on the Carolina coast.
   A meeting of thanksgiving in his memory will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, April 20, 
at the Chapel Hill Friends Meeting (Quakers) at 531 Raleigh Road.
   Charles Milner arrived in the Tar Heel State in 1930 to enroll as a student at Guilford 
College in Greensboro, N.C. Living at the home of his brother, Clyde A. Milner, then 
dean, and later president, of the college, Charlie Milner graduated with his A.B. in 
philosophy from Guilford in 1933. In 1994, he received the Alumni Excellence Award 
from his alma mater.
   Born on Aug. 18, 1909, Charlie grew up the youngest of five brothers in a Quaker 
family on a dairy farm in Leesburg. His brother, Arthur Milner, 95, still lives on the 
family farm.
   After his college years, from 1933-36, Charlie Milner began his career in education at 
the depression-era salary of $60 a month for eight months' employment at Sedge Garden 
(N.C.) High School where he taught science and coached all the boys' sports teams. He 
then spent one year teaching science at Central High School before accepting, in 1937, 
the request to found the Bureau of Visual Instruction at the University of North 
Carolina's Extension Division in Chapel Hill. During that time he traveled throughout 
North Carolina introducing the educational use of films in the state's schools. He 
received his M.A. in Education from U.N.C. in 1941.
   With the United States involvement in World War II, Milner volunteered for duty and 
became a naval training officer. He remained in the naval reserve after the war and 
advanced to the rank of Commander before his retirement in 1969. At the end of his 
wartime service in 1945, Milner returned to the University of North Carolina as associate 
director of the Extension Division. In 1956, he became acting director and in 1959, 
director – the title he held until 1975. In 1948, as a consultant for the War Department, 
Milner worked in occupied Japan to establish audio-visual programs for Japanese 
educators. In 1952-53, in Iran, he did similar work for the U.S. State Department as a 
visiting professor of audiovisual education at the University of Tehran. During his tenure 
as a professor of education at U.N.C., several generations of high school teachers 
mastered the use of audio-visual technology while pursuing advanced professional 
certification in Milner's graduate classes. These students found him delightfully engaging 
and caringly attentive.
   Throughout his career, Milner actively advocated extending the resources of the 
university at Chapel Hill to the people of the entire state. Under his innovative leadership, 
U.N.C.'s Extension Division launched educational television and established the 
university's evening college.
   Also during his years at U.N.C., Milner helped expand and maintain on-campus 
programs in Chapel Hill ranging from Dean Smith's first basketball camp to the North 
Carolina Press Association's annual meetings. In many ways, the establishment of 
U.N.C.'s Friday Center for Continuing Education demonstrates the legacy of Charles 
Milner.
   In matters of national prominence, Milner helped formulate Title I of the national 
Higher Education Act of 1966 which created federal recognition and support of adult 
continuing education. His persuasive presentations to members of the U. S. Congress 
greatly aided the passage of this path-breaking legislation. These efforts along with other 
significant initiatives established Milner as a national leader in education. In 1966, he 
became president of the National University Extension Association (now known as the 
National University Continuing Education Association). In 1975, he received that 
association's major honor, the Julius M. Nolte Award.
   A life-time member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), Milner helped found the 
Chapel Hill meeting and from 1955-56 he served as the Meeting's clerk. His membership 
in the Chapel Hill Kiwanis Club began in 1938, and he accepted a term as president of 
that club in 1949. Elected to the Chapel Hill School Board in 1955, he remained a 
member until 1961. During those years, Milner played an important role in setting up the 
program for desegregating the Chapel Hill and Carboro public schools. In other public 
service, he chaired the Radio Television Committee of the North Carolina Council of 
Churches, and from 1963-1980 he played an active role on the Administrative Board of 
the Institute of Outdoor Drama, which included several years as chair.
   Charles Milner married Eloyse Sargeant Postlewaite of Washington, D.C. on Aug. 21, 
1936. She died on April 15, 1958. Milner's second marriage to Evelyn Ogburn Mowery 
of Tarboro, N.C., lasted from 1959 until her death in 1992. His first marriage produced 
three children: Charles Jr. ("Monty") of Lancaster, Pa., Beverly ("Lee") Bisland of 
Huntington Station, N.Y., and Clyde II of Logan, Utah. His grandchildren number seven, 
and he has one great-granddaughter.
   In lieu of flowers, his family asks that contributions be made to the Milner Scholarship 
Fund, Guilford College, 5800 West Friendly Ave., Greensboro, N.C. 27410.