When Martyn inquired about a job opening at Temple in 1999, he had no idea he was about to walk through a door into his family’s past. After Martyn told his father that he had been offered the job at Temple, his father told him of the family connection to Temple.

A search of records in the Conwella Templana archives confirmed that Martyn’s paternal grandparents, Margaret S. Duncan, a professor of foreign languages, and George F. Miller, a professor of education and psychology, met and married while serving on the Temple faculty from 1916 to 1918.

Martyn said he thinks there are no coincidences in life and the fact that he ended up at Temple was no accident.

“I came to Temple after I saw an advertisement for the position [as director of international students], which was weird because I wasn’t even actively searching for a job at that time,” he said. “Knowing about my ties to the university now, I believe there was a reason why I saw that ad.”

With her father already part of the Temple family, it was only natural for Alisa to make her own mark on the university. And she added that she hopes her children will one day do the same.

“It’s pretty cool how Temple has affected so many members of my family; sometimes while I’m walking around campus, it occurs to me that my great-grandparents may have walked these exact same paths,” Alisa said. “I only hope that my kids will want to continue the family tradition.”

While Alisa has already started her journey at Temple, there is still one piece of the puzzle yet to be placed. Martyn said he hopes that his son, George F. Miller IV, will follow not only Alisa, but also his other sister Lina, thereby completing the family circle by enrolling at Temple when he finishes high school in 2016 — a century after the first George F. Miller arrived on campus.