Robert McMillan, LI housing advocate, politician and author, dies at 91

Robert McMillan, a prominent Long Island lawyer who was a force in national and local politics, and deeply involved in community service with his passion for affordable housing, died Sunday from advanced prostate cancer at his Garden City home. He was 91.

McMillan was a lawyer with several firms over the years — from Rivkin Radler in Uniondale in the 1980s, to his own firm, McMillan, Rather, Bennett, & Rigano that then merged with Fischbein, Badillo, Wagner, Harding in Melville.

Earlier, he was a corporate executive for Avon Products Inc. He also was an author — of "Global Passage: Transformation of Panama and the Panama Canal" — and a co-host of WLIW's "Face-Off" political commentary show for a number of years. 

McMillan, a Republican, ran unsuccessfully against Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) in 1988. But he gained the attention of President George H.W. Bush, who named him to serve on the board of the Panama Canal Commission. The U.S. Senate confirmed him for the post in 1989.

He became chairman of the commission's board of directors in 1993, the first person who was not an official of the Department of Defense to serve as chairman, his family said.

McMillan's wife, Phoebe, said of her husband: “The name of the game is to show up and communicate. He was very giving. He was always helping. His family and others.”

McMillan served on numerous corporate and community boards and was the first non-physician selected to serve as a member of the board of trustees of the American Medical Association, serving six years. His wife said AMA officials were looking for a nonmedical person to help guide them on business matters. 

Key to Housing Partnership

McMillan also was the driving force behind the creation of the Long Island Housing Partnership in 1987, which became operational a year later, recalled Jim Morgo, the partnership's first president.

"The Panama Canal and Medical Association [appointments] were significant, but that’s not the way I knew Bob," said Morgo, of Bayport, a former Suffolk County deputy executive and former economic development commissioner who is now a development consultant.

Morgo said McMillan "was the motivational force" of the partnership.

"The housing partnership began in 1988 with just me as its first president and a secretary in a classroom" at Stony Brook University, Morgo said. McMillan reached out to business leaders, municipalities and banks to get seed money for the partnership, a nonprofit that develops housing and provides assistance to certain homeseekers. 

While he and McMillan were on the opposite  sides of the political spectrum — Morgo is a Democrat — he said McMillan was a pragmatist focused on creating affordable housing. "He was able to make it not only a moral issue, but also an economic issue," Morgo said.

Peter Elkowitz, the current president and chief executive of the housing partnership who's been at the agency 35 years, said of McMillan: "Bob was a very caring individual ... He was a forward thinker when it came to affordable housing."

A call to 'Wake up!' on housing

For a New Year's Day story in Newsday in 2006, McMillan was among those asked to write about challenges facing Long Island. He wrote in part: 

"My wish is that we get over our opposition to affordable housing. Many resist because it means 'those people' will move into our backyards. Wake up! 'Those people' are our children and grandchildren. They are the nurses, teachers, secretaries and others who are the backbone of a vibrant community.

"If we do not address the housing issue, both rental and ownership, families will suffer through geographic separation, businesses will leave and no new companies will locate here if there is no housing for the people who work in their warehouses and offices."

McMillan's son, Ken McMillan of Port Washington, described his father as the "epitome of a hardworking, moral and ethical guy ... Beyond that I would say he was a wonderful father [and] patriarch of his family" who loved to make animal noises for children.

"It was his go-to, as far as entertaining little kids," his son said. 

McMillan was born in Cambria Heights, Queens, and earned degrees from Adelphi University and Brooklyn Law School. He earned a Bronze Star while serving as a combat engineer in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant in Korea from 1952 to 1954, his family said. 

McMillan's first wife, Jane, died in 1995. In addition to Phoebe and son, his survivors include two daughters: Robin McMillan of New Mexico, and Karen Brayton of Campbell, South Carolina; three sisters, Carol Aagard of Florida, Gail McMillan of North Carolina and Jean Scanlon of Pennsylvania; seven grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

A memorial service was held Thursday at Garden City Community Church. Burial was at Pinelawn Memorial Park.

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie