Barbara Kettler-Mills

KENT ISLAND - Barbara W. Kettler-Mills, 82, philanthropist, fund-raiser and longtime area resident, died June 24 of cancer at her home on Kent Island.

Born Barbara Walker in Gaithersburg, in 1924, Mrs. Kettler-Mills" ancestors trace back to the 1600s in the Washington area. She attended Gaithersburg Elementary, Junior High and High schools, graduating in 1942. As a youth, she was active in the 4-H Club and youth group activities at Grace Methodist Church in Gaithersburg.

In high school, she participated in athletics, especially basketball. She attended Penn Hall in Chambersburg, Pa., and graduated in 1945. After graduating from college, she worked at the H. L. Rust Company in Washington, D.C. She married Milton E. Kettler in 1947 and had three children, Ellen Luise, Robert Charles and Peter Brookes.

In 1952, brothers Milton, Clarence and Charles Kettler began Kettler Brothers, Inc. and were later joined by brother-in-law William Forlines and local businessman Frank Ewing. Kettler Brothers is a development and homebuilding company in the metropolitan Washington area known especially for its development of Montgomery Village in Gaithersburg.

Mrs. Kettler-Mills lived with her husband in Bethesda from 1950 until his death in 1982.

They founded the Cove Creek Club in 1980, a community on Kent Island, where Barbara lived on a permanent basis from 1992.

In 1986, Mrs. Kettler-Mills married James H. Mills, a well-known residential housing marketing expert and author who introduced the concept of "target marketing" to the building industry in 1955. They lived together at Cove Creek until his death in 2000.

Mrs. Kettler-Mills was active in many charitable activities. She supported the Crittendon home in Washington for many years through volunteering and fund-raising. She and Mr. Kettler helped found St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Bethesda in the early 1960s, and she served as the first female chair of the board of trustees.

In the 1970s she was on the Board of Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg. Mrs. Kettler-Mills later served on the board of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. from 1983 through 1995, where she chaired the Institutional Advancement Committcc and also chaired Wesley"s first capital campaign. She was a member of Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church and Columbia Country Club.

Her hobbies included gardening, bird watching, golf, boating, bike riding, walking (especially with her dog, McCabe) and collecting antiques including tools and duck decoys. She greatly enjoyed her time, traveling with friends and visits with her children and grandchildren.

Survivors include three children, Ellen Paseltiner of Wilmette,IL., Robert Kettler of McLean, Va. and Peter Kettler of Wilmington, Del.; two stepchildren, Tim Mills of Irasburg, Vermont and Susan Mills of Waltham, Mass.; 10 grandchildren and six step-grandchildren.