William Willard McMillan (January 29, 1929 – June 6, 2000) was a world-class American

sport shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such as ...

. Competing in

ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol 25 meter rapid fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events and is shot with .22 LR pistols. The event has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after whic ...

, he won an Olympic gold medal in 1960, was part of the American winning team at the 1952 World Championships, and won several gold and silver medals at the Pan American Games between 1955 and 1979.

Biography

McMillan was born in

Frostburg, Maryland Frostburg is a city in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, and is at the head of the Georges Creek Valley. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located west of Cumberland, the town is one of the first cities ...

. He attended

Turtle Creek High School Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

in Pennsylvania. His professional career began in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

, with McMillan eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. After his retirement, he served as sheriff in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

. He died in

Encinitas, California Encinitas ( Spanish for "Small Oaks") is a beach city in the North County area of San Diego County, California. Located within Southern California, it is approximately north of San Diego, between Solana Beach and Carlsbad, and about south ...

, on June 6, 2000.

Sport shooting

Between 1952 and 1976, he competed in the 25 m rapid fire pistol event in six Olympics, missing only the 1956 Games due to malfunctioning of his weapon during the US trials. He won a gold medal at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and competed at five other Olympic Games. McMillan won one world, five Pan American, and four national titles in the rapid fire pistol and free pistol events, as well as several silver medals at all these competitions, the last two aged 50. In his career, he set two world shooting records. In 1994,

USA Shooting USA Shooting (USAS), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, was chartered by the United States Olympic Committee as the National Governing Body (NGB) for the sport of shooting in April 1995. The NRA had served as the NGB for one hundred years prio ...

inducted him into the USA Shooting Hall of Fame.

Military service

McMillan enlisted in the

in 1946. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1953 and retired as a

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

in 1974. He served in the

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

wars. From 1974 to 1981, he worked as a Weapons Training Coordinator at

, where he was injured in a shooting accident at the old Camp Elliot range. In 1978, the Marine Corps established the McMillan Trophy for sports shooting in his honor.

Military awards

* Distinguished Pistol Shot, June 16, 1950 * Distinghuished Marksman, June 3, 1954 * Distinghuished International Shooter, May 23, 1963

References

External links