Burnell Miller was a carrier for the Pantagraph while a student at Lincoln College in 1929. I wonder whether he was able to pay his way through college with a carrier's income plus any summertime work? A woman from ISNU described life at ISNU in 1930: "A large percentage of students hoped to work their way through school. Some did well to raise enough money for tuition. Many worked for room and board. Some brought food from home and lived in the cheapest of furnished rooms, cooking their meals on gas burners in basements or on single plates in their rooms. Their clothing was often shabby and worn. Patched blue jeans were not uncommon and sox were saved for special occasions."
1929 was also the time when Lincoln College became a "junior college," instead of a university, as it had been since its inception in 1865. Junior colleges started as an effort to make college affordable for more people.
Burnell's biography was featured in the Pantagraph as part of a new feature in the paper that highlighted their valuable carriers. Burnell delivered papers in Atlanta where he lived and had 225 customers. He delivered the papers with his younger brother by automobile and then the two would travel each day to Lincoln for their classes. The Pantagraph expressed lots of appreciation for its carriers throughout the years. There were contests and parties and even special career days when they would be introduced to the inner workings of the Pantagraph. Being a carrier was a great experience for boys, too bad girls weren't included!
In 1929 Burnell's ambition was to be a high school instructor, but after he graduated, Burnell joined a new insurance company in Bloomington called State Farm. He was a statistician with State Farm, and rising through the ranks, in 1946 he became comptroller, then in 1961 was fiscal vice-president. He retired after forty years with the company in 1972. He and his wife Ruth moved to Sun City, Arizona to enjoy their retirement years. He may have gone off course from his plans, but he certainly made a success of his career.