Sandra Jane Miles

Sandra, or Sandy or Jane to her family and friends, was a supremely kind soul who cared for all living creatures. Equally enthralled by both the Earth and the cosmos on a grand scale and by the tiny ecosystems in her own backyard, she was dedicated to feeding her neighborhood birds and other wildlife. She was a teacher of Earth Science by profession before she retired, and it brought her great joy to share her love of the natural world with others. Sandra Jane Miles, 77, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, passed away of complications from lung and adrenal gland cancers and various heart conditions on December 1, 2025.

She was born in Sturgis, Michigan on July 13, 1948 to Kathryn Elizabeth (Von Olnhausen) Scheetz and Roger Winton Scheetz. Her mother worked as a Night Foreman at Transogram, and her father was employed as a Typesetter at Brubaker Printing before moving on to a series of Purchasing positions at multiple companies, including Burr Oak Tool. In her early years, she spent a great deal of time with her beloved grandmother, Ila Mae (Baker) Scheetz. Ila Mae taught her how to sew and to become an exceptional baker, a talent that served her well her whole life. She grew up alongside her younger brother, David Roger Scheetz, whom she continued to affectionately refer to as Baby Brother until long after his hair turned white and his beard grew long. She attended Sturgis High School, playing in the marching band, before double-majoring in Earth Science and Mathematics at Western Michigan University, where she also continued on to earn her Masters in Earth Science with an emphasis on Geology.

In 1972, she began working for Palomar College in San Marcos, California, where she was a tenured Associate Professor and taught Geology, Oceanography, and Astronomy. She ran the planetarium as Assistant Director with her friend and office partner, Joe Willis, presenting planetarium programs to the public and K-12 students. An enthusiastic outdoorsperson, she loved exploring California and camping and hiking, especially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Yosemite National Park. On summer breaks, she led student tours through the Grand Canyon, and she once rafted the Colorado River rapids with her students after a storm. As it happened, excess rainwater had just been released from an upstream dam, creating an unusual surge of water. She and her future husband, who had joined her for this particular voyage, barrelled through Lava Falls, which are Class 10 rapids - the gnarliest in the canyon. After their boatman was thrown from the back of the raft, they plowed into a huge rock notorious for eating river boats; fortunately everyone survived it unscathed. Sandra also hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim over three days and traveled to some twenty-five National and Provincial Parks in the western United States and Canada to study the local geology. She skydived and came within inches of finishing her pilot’s license. She was a true adventurer.

Sandra married her husband Dennis Lee Miles in 1978. They had met years before as undergraduates in the Geology Department at Western Michigan; he had charmed her by hauling a large rock that she wanted to take home from one of their excursions, rolling it 50 yards to the car because it was too big to carry. She told him later that was when she knew he was the one. Five years later in 1983, they welcomed their first daughter, Kathryn Anne Miles, and soon after Sandra made the difficult decision to put her career on hold and stay home with her young daughter. In 1984, she and her family moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and shortly after, in 1986, her second daughter, Pamela Jane Miles, arrived. She cared for both of them diligently, with endless warmth and patience. While she loved spending time at home with her girls, giving up teaching was hard for her; she loved it deeply and was so good at it. No matter the subject, she excelled at inspiring excitement and motivation in her students - whether instructing her college-level science courses, or helping children learn to read at Lincoln Elementary School, where she volunteered during her own children’s time there. Those kids adored her and said hello for years afterward.

In her new home, she kept busy with many different projects and adventures. She took the girls camping on her brother’s farm in Sturgis, Michigan, where they had deck parties, went garage sale-ing, and grew up amongst their aunt, uncle, cousins, and numerous kittens and chickens. Many happy summer days were spent there.

There were family rock-hunting excursions to southern Indiana; everyone participated, and she cheerfully led the parade of tink-tink-tinking on the roadside road cuts where fossils abound.

One of her favorite warm weather activities was to camp with her husband and daughters in Michigan, staying in the family’s little pop-up camper, strolling along the beaches, eating ice cream and watching the storms roll in over Lake Michigan from the safety of their car, visiting the small towns nearby, and, most especially, watching the stunning summer sunsets all together as a family on the bluffs overlooking the lake. She adored Lake Michigan, especially Ludington and Orchard Beach State Parks; these magic-filled summer weeks became treasured memories.

As her children grew older, she began working part-time as an adjunct professor at Trine University in Fort Wayne, teaching Geology, Weather and Climate, Physical Geography, and Astronomy. She helped with early program kits for Fort Wayne’s children’s science museum, Science Central. Upon its opening, she worked in the Swap Shop where she was known affectionately as the Rock Lady. She taught kids and parents alike about all aspects of rocks, minerals, and fossils. Each child brought in a natural item to trade and would always go home with a rock or a fossil of their choosing and perhaps a spark of new interest for the field of science that she herself found most exciting.

Years later, her daughters, Katie and Pam, began working in Wisconsin, which provided ample opportunities for new journeys and experiences. She enjoyed visiting American Players Theatre to see their costume work and scenic painting (respectively) on display in the performances, exploring the cute small towns, camping at Governor Dodge State Park, and hiking the beautiful hills and meadows there. When Katie moved to Brooklyn, New York for fifteen years, Sandra was thrilled to hear about her big city escapades, and when Pam spent a few years in Arizona, she and her husband flew down for Christmas the year her daughter could not make the trip home to Fort Wayne. She was endlessly supportive of her daughters, a fierce advocate and a reassuring presence. Despite their not-so-scientific career pursuits and meandering life paths, she threw herself into learning about their artistic endeavors with true interest and curiosity.

There are a million stories and an unquantifiable number of life events, but none of them fully capture how lovely she was. Not even a scientist is merely dates and facts, and Sandra had a boundless number of extraordinary qualities - her spirit was ineffable.

Her first brand new car was a bright blue Volvo, and it was the happiest looking vehicle, which doesn’t matter at all, except that every object that was deliberately chosen by her seemed joyful. Her favorite color was yellow, and she loved sunny days. She used to say, “This is a California day” on warm days with cloudless skies.

She possessed a terrific sense of humor with the most rewarding laugh, reserved only for those she actually found funny. If you got to hear it you knew you had really earned it. She held the best, most beaming smile for those she loved.

She filled the woods behind her family’s house with daffodils, and every spring they appear like an expansive spray of vibrant yellow fairy dust. They have multiplied over 40 years to practically cover the forest floor and have spread throughout the neighborhood, as she gifted them openly whenever people asked. She left a mark of quiet kindness on every place she went and on every person she met.

She was organized, deliberate, careful; her care is writ large all over her house in her neat handwriting, labels on everything, and all over our lives, in every action she took and every word she gave us.

She taught her daughters to look intently at the world, to pay attention, to question and to think, to view everything with curiosity and wonder. There were always scientific experiments on the kitchen counter, owl pellets drying in the oven (for dissection), geode cracking in the driveway, and cloud formation and weather pattern lessons in the car…and they loved it. Her delightful enthusiasm was contagious; it was like living with Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus in the best way.

She loved birds and animals and made her home a haven for them; for a few years she had a hummingbird that would hover in front of the kitchen window and buzz her while she was doing dishes as if to say, “Hello! Could you please refill the feeder?” That little dude loved her - he knew who his generous-hearted friend was. She even had a bat house installed on her home to give a restful place for her friendly mosquito-catchers to stay. Generations of pet cats have enjoyed her steady, calm presence and readiness with pets and chin scratches; all of them knew a cat person when they met her. She was steadfast in caring for the Earth and all of its inhabitants.

She offered help freely and readily, but gently, and without pushing; animals and people felt safe with her. She had the most lovely presence; it was comforting just to be in the room with her.

She listened deeply to people; she made them feel heard and seen, respected. She paid attention, to others, to the world, to the smallest of creatures. Every life had its own voice, and she cared enough to try to understand and learn, with an open mind and an open heart, without judgement and always with unreserved empathy.

She was strong, often quiet and reserved, but emphatic in her kindness, and powerfully righteous in her actions. She was a beacon of light to those around her.

We struggled with writing her obituary because of the enormity of how interwoven she was into our lives. There are too many stories to tell, too many reasons we love her, and it is impossible to do her justice here, with a single brief passage. But if you imagine these sentiments as a minuscule fraction of how wonderful she was, you may begin to appreciate the marvelous woman she was and how elegantly she moved through the world, with such understated generosity and integrity.

We cannot begin to describe how big a hole she has left, but she has already filled it herself, a thousand times over, with unfathomable amounts of love. We will love and miss her forever, but she is with us always, right there on our shoulders, just as she promised.

Sandra was preceded in death by both of her parents, Kathryn Elizabeth Von Olnhausen and Roger Winton Scheetz; and she is survived by her husband, Dennis Lee Miles; daughters, Kathryn Anne Miles, and Pamela Jane Miles; brother, David Roger (Lou Ann (Gest)) Scheetz; five nephews, Marshall Todd Scheetz, David Thomas Scheetz, John Andrew Scheetz, Robert (Butch) Carl Scheetz, and Peter Joseph Scheetz; niece, Jennifer Elizabeth (Scheetz) Falkenstein; aunt, Shirley Ann (Von Olnhausen) Sturgis; sister-in-law, Sandra Jo Miles; and Lizzy Miles, her very cute but rather naughty tuxedo cat.

It was her express wish that there not be a funeral or formal memorial reception; the family requests that no flowers be sent. If you’d like, please feel free to make a donation to The Nature Conservancy, Audubon Society, or Humane Fort Wayne (formerly Allen County SPCA) below.