Eleanor H. Miller

Eleanor H. Miller, "Wendy," 94, died Friday evening, October 27, 2023, at Kingsway Arms Nursing Center, in Schenectady, New York.

She was born in Melrose, Mass. to the late Robert J. and Eleanor Walker Hull, and grew up in New England. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1951 with a bachelor's degree in French. In the mid-1950s she traveled on her own to Europe, eventually landing a position teaching English in Rome.

Upon her return, she completed her master's in Romance languages at Middlebury College. During that time, she met and married Peter G. Miller, with whom she shares a daughter, Suzanne.

In the 1960s she accepted a position at the University of Massachusetts, where she taught French and Spanish. In 1968, now a single mother, she moved to France with Suzanne, and spent a year in Aix-En-Provence, pursuing her Ph.D. studies.

After returning from France, she moved to Virginia Beach. She completed her Ph.D., earning her doctorate from Middlebury in 1978, while teaching French and Spanish at Norfolk State University well into the 1990s. There she met her longtime companion, the late Norton Girault, a writer and her colleague at NSU.

Wendy loved spending her summers at her family's Christmas tree farm in Colrain, Mass. She enjoyed folk dancing, the opera, gourmet cooking and lively conversation. After her retirement she traveled with Norton to the National Parks, Mexico, Europe and Canada. She was an early advocate of women's rights, and a champion of the downtrodden. She embraced holistic living, meditation and organic foods.

Wendy was predeceased by her brother, Robert W. Hull and his wife, Marjie Hull, of California. She is survived by her daughter, Suzanne, Suzanne's husband, Brett Laumeister, and Suzanne's father, Peter G. Miller.

A private memorial service will be held in Norfolk.