Judge Mills grew up in Jacksonville and stayed close to home to attend IC. He was engaged on campus as a varsity debater, orator and member of the Phi Alpha literary society. He went on to Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, to earn his law degree, and the University of Virginia for his master’s of law degree.

Judge Mills has remained loyal to his hometown alma mater, serving as an ambassador for the college. He is a Trustee Emeritus, recipient of the Distinguished Service Award by the Alumni Association in 1976 and selected as Homecoming Parade Marshal in 2012. He has also been a mentor to many IC graduates, such as Roman Petra ’96, who is now a transactional attorney specializing in real estate at Broad and Cassel in Orlando, Florida, and got his start clerking for Judge Mills.

“That was one of the best things that’s ever happened in my life, was clerking with Judge Mills. He became a mentor of mine,” said Petra. “Having a federal judge that was actively practicing, he was connected to and extremely involved with Illinois College, and wanted to make sure there were students who were going to go to law school. That was very important to him and he did everything he could to make that happen.”

Mills practiced law in Virginia and served as a public defender and Cass County state’s attorney before being elected circuit judge in the 8th Judicial Circuit of Illinois in 1966. He was elected to the Appellate Court of Illinois, where he served nine years, was twice Presiding Justice, and participated in several hundred opinions.

In the summer of 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed Judge Mills a United States District Judge for the Central District of Illinois, where he continues to sit as a senior judge.