Memorial set for ex-principal Queenie Mills
Advertiser Staff
A memorial gathering in honor of Queenie B. Mills, a former Punahou School principal and innovator in child development as well as human-pet relationships, will begin at 11 a.m. tomorrow at O'ahu Cemetery.
Mills was 89 when she died Aug. 6 in Urbana, Ill. Her remains are being interred in the Monsarrat family plot, where the memorial is taking place.
Queenie Mills was involved in therapeutic pet programs.
After earning bachelor's and master's degrees from New York University, Mills worked at Punahou from 1946 to 1951, serving as principal of the lower elementary school from 1947 to 1949. She then continued her education, earning degrees in nursing and child development, respectively, at Fifth Avenue Hospital, New York City, and the University of Illinois, where she retired as professor emeritus.
At the university's Child Development Laboratory, she started one of the country's first intervention programs for preschool children from low-income families in 1964. The following year, she was a member of the group that designed and launched the national Head Start program.
In her retirement, Mills became a national advocate for animal welfare and the therapeutic use of animals for the elderly and infirm. She was a founding member of the board of the Delta Society, a nonprofit organization that supports education in the therapeutic application of the human-animal bond; she also founded the national Pet-a-Pet program.
She was a frequent Hawai'i visitor and a lifelong friend of Eloise Monsarrat, who was a Punahou teacher while Mills served as principal. She has no survivors. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Queenie B. Mills Endowment Fund, Champaign County Humane Society, 1911 East Main St., Urbana, IL 61802.
