Northwest students, members of Sigma Tau Gamma-Theta Chapter and others, such as University President Lance Tatum, gathered 8 p.m. April 17 around the Memorial Bell Tower to honor former student Joe Miller.
Miller, 19, died April 11 due to a brain tumor. Sophomore Parker Heller was a friend and brother to Miller in Sig Tau. He said his death was sudden.
“It was really unexpected, because we were going to go see him Friday,” Heller said. “We found out he wasn’t doing the best…there was, I think, 20 of us, we were going to go see him, and then we get the call that morning that we can’t come see him because he’s gone.”
Heller said he felt broken at that moment.
Miller’s lifelong friend, freshman Avery Hanafan, said she found out Miller was not doing well April 9. She and Bryson Jensen, another of Miller’s longtime friends and his roommate, drove home from the University to see him that evening.
“My mom had called me, and she had said that he (Miller) had gone into the ER Tuesday night, and that they found more masses on him, and that he had 10-ish days, maybe,” Hanafan said. “It was in the brain, so kind of aggressive. You don’t ever really know what’s gonna happen.”
Hanafan said they both had a chance to talk to Miller one last time before April 11.
She said when she received the call that he had died, it felt like an ‘Is it real?’ situation.
Hanafan said she and Miller knew each other their entire lives. Growing up, both of their dads were coaches at Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She said the two families would go on vacations together and hang out at basketball and football games. Hanfan said they felt like each other’s family.
“(My) earliest memory would probably be…kindergarten, first grade, when we started going to the lake together,” Hanafan said. “Our families would take a week and we’d go to the lake, and you would always catch me and Joe (Miller) being down at the dock with each other, with our fishing poles away from everybody else.”
Hanafan said Miller’s liver cancer was first discovered during their sophomore year of high school. She said she knew he had not been at school and assumed he had food poisoning. Later, Miller texted her to inform her he was going into surgery.
“We watched him go through 40-plus surgeries, a lot of rounds of chemo…he lost a lot of weight, and he lost his hair and everything,” Hanafan said. “Even through all of that, you still knew who Joe (Miller) was. He wasn’t a different kid. He wasn’t shameful of his sickness.”
She said one memorable aspect of Miller was his mentality on life. Hanafan said he believed life is only a piece of time, while going up to Heaven is an eternity.
During the on-campus memorial service, Sigma Tau Gamma-Theta Chapter President Quinn Palmer said Miller was not afraid of death.
“He lived his life with courage, humor and a heart wide open,” Palmer said. “With a short time here at Northwest, he was able to form many lifelong friendships and make many great memories.”
Palmer and Heller both said their favorite memory of Miller followed Bid Day 2024. Once all the new and active members of Sigma Tau Gamma-Theta Chapter got back to the Chapter’s house, Miller stood in the middle of the crowd and began to rap “Yeah Glo!” Palmer said Miller knew the entire song word-for-word and did not miss a single beat.
