Zell Miller, former senator and Georgia governor, dies at age 86

ATLANTA — Zell Miller, a former U.S. senator and Georgia governor who established the state’s HOPE scholarship for college students, died Friday at age 86.

Miller’s grandson Bryan Miller, CEO of the Miller Institute Foundation, confirmed the death Friday. In a statement, he said the former governor had been treated for Parkinson's disease and died peacefully at his home in the tiny north Georgia town of Young Harris.

“My grandfather passed away peacefully surrounded by his family,” Bryan Miller said. “The people of Georgia have lost one of our state’s finest public servants.”

Zell Miller served as governor of Georgia from 1991 to 1999. During that time he established the HOPE (Helping Oustanding Pupils Educationally) Scholarship that is still a primary source of funding for aspiring college students to this day and is also used to fund the state's pre-kindergarten program. 

The HOPE program paid college tuition for Georgia students maintaining a “B” average and was funded by establishing a state lottery. The program has aided more than 1.8 million students during that time.

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Miller, a Democrat, came out of retirement in 2000 at age 68 to fill the final four years of a U.S. Senate term. 

He often was at odds with his own party, which he criticized for veering from mainstream values. Many Democrats clamored for him to switch parties after he delivered a fiery keynote speech for then-President George W. Bush at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

It was the kind of unpredictable behavior that earned the ex-Marine the nickname “Zig-Zag Zell.” The moniker initially infuriated him but in later life he acknowledged there was some truth to it.

“I would be suspect of any politician who doesn’t change their mind on some issues,” he once said.

Bush sent condolences from Texas, calling Miller “an example of service before self, country before party, principle before poll.”

Miller drew praise from another former president, fellow Georgian Jimmy Carter, who served alongside Miller as a state senator in the 1960s.

“Growing up in the hills of north Georgia gave Zell a straight-talking approach to politics that left no one in doubt of his views on any subject,” the 93-year-old former president said, adding that Miller was “a good friend.”

Miller worked a succession of state political jobs before winning the governorship in 1990 at age 58, easily defeating former Atlanta mayor and ex-UN ambassador Andrew Young in a Democratic runoff and then defeating Johnny Isakson, a Republican who would succeed him 15 years later in the Senate.

Despite their political rivalry, Miller during his second term as governor appointed Isakson in 1996 to become chairman of the state Board of Education. Miller had just fired the previous board for political infighting with Georgia’s new Republican school superintendent.

“I thought that must be a trick,” Isakson recalled. “I couldn’t think why the guy I ran against for governor would want to appoint me.”

The rousing success of Georgia’s lottery for education program probably saved Miller from defeat in 1994 when he sought re-election. He had ignited a firestorm in 1993 with an unsuccessful attempt to remove the fighting banner of the Confederacy from the state flag.

With Atlanta due to host the Olympics in 1996, the business community wanted Georgia to remove a symbol associated with segregation. But many whites, and most legislators, opposed the idea.

In a stirring address, Miller told lawmakers it was time to jettison the old Confederate insignia added to the flag in 1956 “to identify Georgia with the dark side of the Confederacy — the desire to deprive some Americans of the equal rights that are the birthright of all.”

But he couldn’t muster the votes and ultimately abandoned the effort.

The family has not yet announced funeral arrangements.

“As his grandson, I learned more from Zell Miller both professionally and personally than from anyone else I have encountered," Bryan Miller said. "He was more than my grandfather. He was my dear friend and mentor. I cherish all the time we spent together."

Contributing: The Associated Press