Obituaries

Ralph J. Mills Jr.: 1931 - 2007

Prolific poet was a gracious critic

Longtime English professor at University of Illinois at Chicago had vast literary knowledge

By Trevor Jensen | Tribune staff reporter

    August 21, 2007 

A poet, teacher and critic known for the precision of his observations and the generosity of his praise, Ralph J. Mills Jr. died on Saturday, Aug. 18, in his home in Park Ridge after a long fight with Parkinson's disease, said his wife, Helen.

Mr. Mills, 75, and his wife moved to Park Ridge three years ago after many years in a Gold Coast townhouse.

An English professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1965 until 1997, Mr. Mills published 13 volumes of his own poetry, eight books of criticism, two volumes of essays, and edited the letters and selected prose of the poet Theodore Roethke.

Much of his poetry was in the objectivist style, "dependent on images, tersely presented," said Michael Anania, a poet and colleague of Mr. Mills' at UIC. His volume "Grasses Standing: Selected Poems," won the 2000 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.

"His poems were not always easy to parse, some of the thoughts he was trying to get across were complicated thoughts. They didn't glide easily -- they weren't meant to," said novelist Ward Just, a classmate of Mr. Mills' at Lake Forest Academy.

Within the world of Chicago writers and academics, he was widely respected for his piercing intellect and the breadth of his knowledge, said novelist and former University of Chicago professor Richard Stern.

"He could tell you an awful lot," Stern said. "He could direct you to places that were not the most well-known places to go."

His essays and criticism concentrated on 20th Century poets such as Roethke, Edith Sitwell and Wallace Stevens. A compilation, "Essays on Poetry," was published in 2003. He had a great enthusiasm for poetry and, to the best of Stern's recollection, never wrote a negative review.

"He enjoyed more poets, more poems, more criticism of poetry than anyone I know," a rare beacon of benevolence in a field where most participants "love to try to spike each others' eyes out," Stern said.

Mr. Mills' father owned Mills Novelty Co., maker of slot machines, dime-store scales and other vending and gaming machines. He grew up in Chicago and Lake Forest.

At Lake Forest Academy, he and Just worked for the school's literary magazine, to which Mr. Mills contributed poetry. Mr. Mills also was a skilled jazz pianist. After undergraduate work at Lake Forest College, he received his master's degree and doctorate from Northwestern University.

He attended Oxford University for a year, and from 1959 to 1965 taught at the University of Chicago, where he also sat on the prestigious Committee on Social Thought. In 1959 he married the former Helen Harvey, a descendant of the man who started the Fred Harvey chain of roadside restaurants.

At UIC, he taught a range of classes, but in later years focused on poetry, Anania said. He had the ability to break down complex poems and "didn't demand his students be carbon copies of who he was," Anania said.

"He was an absolutely dedicated intellectual, but you'd never hear any statement that seemed intellectually immodest or off-putting," Anania said.

On most days, Mr. Mills walked from his Gold Coast home on Astor Street to the Loop, where he boarded a train to the UIC campus.

After classes, he took the CTA downtown and stopped at the old Kroch's & Brentano's on Wabash Avenue and a couple of other bookstores during a stroll back home.

For 30 years, Mr. Mills and his wife threw a Christmas Eve party that attracted an array of guests from the worlds of art, literature, academia and high society.

"It became, year after year, the place you wanted to go on Christmas Eve," Stern said.

He worked in a third-floor den of his home, writing in longhand and revising frequently before moving to a typewriter.

"He had a very appealing manner to him, particularly when he discussed his own work," Just said. "He was quite objective."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Mills is survived by a son, Julian; two daughters, Brett and Natalie Bontumasi; a sister, Anne Canter; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service is being planned for early October.