IN MEMORY OF ERMA - A BLESSING TO EVERYONE SHE MET
by Amy DuFresne

Erma Miller's life encompassed much more than the ministry most of you know her by. She was responsible for changing lives even outside the ministry. Erma was involved in many different business enterprises, and she was brilliant in all of them. Erma attended and graduated with a degree in business from North Central Business and Bible School in Minneapolis, MN, where she met Glen in 1940. Her first job after their marriage in 1942, was working for R. G. Le Tourneau in the mailroom, and Glen worked in the machine shop. They both worked there until Glen joined the Army Corp of Engineers. He was eventually transferred to Hunter's Point Navy base in San Francisco, and when the weather there was affecting Erma's health, they were given a medical release and moved to Los Angeles, where they lived for 32 years. There they purchased a vacant lot, built a building, and opened a bakery business, with Erma as head of the sales clerks. Glen Miller's Bakeries of Hollywood were famous, and became a chain of eleven stores. Erma was in charge of training and managing 46 sales clerks. They operated the bakeries until January, 1952.

Erma then went to work for Lockheed Aircraft and was invited to be the fifty-third employee of Lockheed Missile Company in Van Nuys, CA. She was the first female department head over typing, reproductions, art and the writers. She worked for Lockheed Missile until they relocated to Sunny Vale, CA. She resigned and took a job as a department head for RCA and ran a school for RCA teaching specialized typing for the missile industry three days a week. It was the "space age" and there was great demand for technical typists. When she asked the head of the west coast division of I.B.M. why he didn't start a school to train technical typists, he said, she should start one and that he could get the typewriters for her school.

So Glen and Erma rented a building on Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood, CA and bought six I.B.M. executive, proportional spacing typewriters, bought some desks and started the "School of Technical Typing", the one and only ever of its kind. It was very successful; I.B.M. used it to advertise and there was a wonderful article written about the school and Erma in the magazine "Today's Secretary". It operated at night, a two-week course with a government job available upon completion. Soon she had so many students she resigned from her job and had three, three-hour classes each day - morning, afternoon, and evening. All the aircraft and missile companies wanted to hire her students. Then the companies wanted her and her students to do typing for them. Some of the companies wanted her to do classified work.

The school didn't have a security clearance, but R.C.A. said they would get one for her. Erma had an atomic Q clearance and Glen had top secret clearance, and 75 employees received security clearance. So the "School of Technical Typing" became "Technical Publication Services". Eventually they had contracts with almost all the aerospace and missile companies - R.C.A., Bendix, Litton, Lockheed, Atomics International, North American Aviation, Rocketdyne, Autonatics, Hughes, Northroupe, Bell Helicopter and others. By a miraculous answer to Erma's prayer, (you can read about it in her booklet, Handful of Hair) her business received the prime contract for the Apollo Moon Project for typing and reproduction, which eventually financed L.H.B.C. Glen suffered a heart attack and GOD had them sell the "Technical Publication Services" in 1965, and they started traveling with the Full Gospel Business Mens' Fellowship and Erma became the book table lady, where many of you first met her.

In 1967, while traveling with the Full Gospel Business Men, Glen had his vision of Lake Hamilton Bible Camp. They had a beautiful new home up on the mountainside in Northridge, California - four bedrooms, four baths, maid's quarters, and a new car. They never had to look for a job, even if they only worked a few days in between conventions. Years later, and with much searching, Inez Barron helped Glen find his vision in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1972, and they moved there in 1974, establishing Lake Hamilton Bible Camp, a hub for the deliverance ministry.

Erma led an exceptional life, leading it in prayer and faith. The LORD worked numerous miracles in her life, and she was faithful to His call, even when it meant giving up home and family. Even before the ministry here at Lake Hamilton, she helped numerous others. In a time when women were just entering the workforce, she was leading them, providing careers for hundreds of young men and women.

Erma meant so much to so many people. There are so many wonderful memories to cherish. I know my life is better for knowing her. I will always remember how Bill Sanford would bring her chocolates and help her eat them, how Juanita Banker would play piano with her in the afternoons, and how my two-year-old (her great-grandson) Isaiah would help her walk places and show her all his toys. I would always have her proofread the magazine for me as I wrote it, and she could always find things that everybody else in the office overlooked. Erma was truly a special person, whose life should be an example for the rest of us.

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