Nancy Hamilton

Nancy Corinne Miller Hamilton was born August 22, 1929, in El Paso, the daughter of Harold F. and Corinne Miller. She graduated from Austin High School in 1946 and received her B.A. degree in journalism in 1949 and M.A. in English in 1954 from Texas Western College (now The University of Texas at El Paso). She married Ralph E. Hamilton in 1968 and became the stepmother of his children, James (Jay) and Jeannie. Her career alternated mainly between newspaper reporting and educational public relations. She spent nine years with the El Paso Times (1950-59), nine years with the El Paso Independent School District (1959-68), four years with the El Paso Herald-Post (1972-76) and nine years in media relations for UTEP (1976-85). She then became associate director of Texas Western Press at UTEP, serving until her retirement in 1990. She continued to edit books for TW Press and other publishers for another ten years. In 1997 and 1998 she was a part-time lecturer in public relations for the UTEP Department of Communication. Nancy Hamilton is past chairman of the Executive Committee of the UTEP Heritage Commission. After her husband Ralph passed away in 2007, a memorial fund was established for him at the Heritage Commission; he had been an active volunteer, and, through the generosity of donors, he continued to support the commission. She is also past sheriff of Mt. Franklin Corral of Westerners, and past president of Western Writers of America, a professional organization of about 500 members. Her history interests have included serving three years as editor of the El Paso Historical Society’s Password, ten years on the El Paso County Historical Commission, longtime secretary-treasurer of the Pioneers Association of El Paso County, and service on the Four Centuries ’81 Commission. She is the author of a biography, Ben Dowell, El Paso’s First Mayor (1976), and UTEP: A Pictorial History of the University of Texas at El Paso (1988). She was a contributor to the revised Handbook of Texas. She is co-author of Legendary Watering Holes (2004, Texas A&M Press), Literary El Paso (2009, TCU Press) and Grace and Gumption: Women of El Paso (2011, TCU Press) as well as over 100 articles in UTEP’s magazine Nova. http://transformations.utep.edu/?p=3234

Area: Central / University