Michael McMillan

Oct. 21, 1948 - April 22, 2025

Michael McMillan, age 76, was born in Surrency, Ga., Oct. 21, 1948, and passed away on April 22, 2025, at Three Rivers Hospital, Basin, Wyo. 

Michael attended Sheridan College for two years and served three years in the Army. He served with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam as a sniper and received a National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Purple Heart, two Bronze Stars and one Bronze Star with a “V” device for Valor. Michael was wounded in Vietnam when his spotter lost his legs after hitting an 81 mm booby-trapped mortar. Michael was flown to Japan; he and his “spotter” later reunited in Greybull in September 2002 after each believed the other died. 

Michael and his wife Christine Gillis were married in Sheridan, Wyo., in 1970 and moved to Greybull in July 1974 to pastor Grace Fellowship Church. Michael and Christine served the community of Greybull at their church for 34 years, performing hundreds of weddings and funerals in the area. 

Michael served on the Greybull School Board for 12 years, the South Big Horn County Special Cemetery District for 18 years and helped secure the Donald Ruhl Memorial Monument at the cemetery. 

Michael trapped in the ‘70s, drove the Beaver Creek school bus, worked at M.I. Drilling for 10 years and wore out three 650 motorcycles riding in the “holy lands” (as he referred to the desert high plains of this area). He was an avid hunter and loved to take his sons hunting with him all over the Basin. When Michael retired from Grace Fellowship Church, he did military support for those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Michael is preceded in death by his father Odias and mother Zofia McMillan. 

Michael is survived by his loving wife of 54 years, Christine and by his three sons:  Nathan (Candace) McMillan, Powell, Wyo., and their children Dalton, Dylan and Zofia; Shawn McMillan, Billings, Mont., and his son Aidan; and Jacob (Emily) McMillan, Billings, Mont., and their children Jonah, Owen and Charlotte. All his grandchildren loved to call him Papa Bear. Michael is also survived by three sisters and two twin brothers. 

Services will be held Saturday, June 21, at 10 a.m. at the Greybull High School auditorium, with a graveside military ceremony at the Donald J. Ruhl Memorial Cemetery following the services.