Reader Report: Roderick MacMillian remembered for service to youths, long tenure on Newport-Mesa school board
Roderick H. MacMillian, a former Newport-Mesa Unified School District board member whose name is on the district boardroom, has died.
MacMillian spent most of his years living in the Newport Beach-Costa Mesa area, Catalina Island and Palm Springs before relocating to Hawaii, where he died March 1 at age 88.
MacMillian was born March 27, 1927, in Los Angeles. He later moved to the Newport-Mesa area.
Growing up with modest means and an absent father, many of MacMillian’s earliest memories involved struggling to help his mother and grandmother make ends meet during the Depression. He worked as a firehouse mascot, a lifeguard and a baby-sitter for movie stars like John Wayne.
MacMillian attended Newport Harbor High School, where he took up history and journalism, ran the 440-yard dash and was a star receiver in football.
In 1945, at age 18, MacMillian graduated from high school and, with World War II winding down, enlisted in the Navy. He was assigned to duty in San Francisco. Upon his release, he enrolled at Cal State Long Beach, where he earned a teaching credential.
He became a teacher at St. Joachim and Mater Dei, a counselor for Catholic Big Brothers and a sports reporter for the Newport Balboa News Press.
He eventually became athletic director for what’s now known as the Boys & Girls Club of the Harbor Area and for several decades served as commissioner of Harbor Area Baseball Inc. In both capacities, he worked to provide thousands of youths an opportunity to play football, basketball and baseball and in the process build character and find stability in a changing world.
MacMillian married his first wife, Barbara, in 1954. Their son Michael was born a year later. The marriage dissolved several years afterward.
In 1963, he married Mildred “Millie” Moran and they bought a home in Costa Mesa. A year later, their daughter Christine was welcomed into a family that included Millie’s sons Patrick, Thomas, William and Michael Moran and Rod’s son Michael from his first marriage.
MacMillian began his Newport-Mesa school board tenure in 1965 and held the position until 1994. He served on the board during a time of explosive population growth, quickly evolving educational requirements and a rapidly changing student census. Newport-Mesa Unified’s boardroom is named after him.
In 1979, MacMillian and Millie bought an Italian restaurant on Catalina Island called Cafe Prego, which was known for its family atmosphere until its closure in 2003.
Millie died in 2009.
MacMillian is survived by his children and their spouses — Mike and Mickey MacMillian; Christine MacMillian and Gary Wood; Pat and Marsha Moran; Jodie Moran; Bill and Cathy Moran; Mike and Sally Moran — as well as his grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great granddaughter.
MacMillian will be interred on Catalina beside Millie.