COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Janet Miller, the first woman to chair CUNA and the first woman to chair the Colorado Credit Union System, passed away Sunday, June 24 from cancer. Miller's credit union career began in 1959 at the Air Academy FCU, Colorado Springs as a part-time typist. Over the next 15 years, she worked in various positions at the credit union, and in 1974 she became AAFCU's president/CEO. She held that position until 1995 when she retired. Miller became CUNA chair in 1989. In 1991 she testified before Congress as part of Operation Grassroots, on the differences between the credit union and banking systems. In so doing, she was instrumental in the success of the campaign to defeat the proposed Deposit Insurance and Regulatory Reform Act of 1991 that would have merged the credit union regulatory and deposit insurance fund with the commercial banking system. From 1985 to 1988, Miller served as Colorado Credit Union System chair. Since then, there have been two other women in the chairman's seat – Janice Hesalroad, retired president, U of C FCU in Boulder, Colo. and the current chair Carla Hedrick, president, Denver Community FCU. In addition to serving on the league's board of directors for 20 years in various capacities, Miller also helped to establish Suncorp Corporate CU in Arvada (formerly called Colorado Corporate FCU) and the Colorado Credit Union League Foundation. Her credit union career also included years of volunteer service on the boards of directors of many committees, subcommittees and task forces, including CUNA Mortgage Corp., CUNA Service Group, the World Council of Credit Unions and the National Association of Retired Credit Union People. Miller was also the first honorary chair of the Filene Research Institute. "Janet did a lot of pioneering for the credit union movement and did a lot to perpetuate the credit union difference. She had a strong belief in the credit union philosophy," said Carroll Beach, president/CEO of the Colorado Credit Union System. "Janet was a compassionate person. She was brave in her illness as she was in her ability to serve the credit union movement," said Beach.