James was my father.  All my life, he'd gone by "Jim," and by "Max" most recently.  He was in the Navy and while he was thus frequently gone, I still have some good memories of him.
He was involved with my Boy Scout troop.  Some of my most interesting, and occasionally frightening, camping memories involved my father.  Like camping inside a spider- and insect-infested Japanese WW-II era bunker during a severe rain storm.  And having to string up a tarp and then avoiding touching the inside of our tent while camping during a different heavy rain storm in Japan.  He sold me on some of his ideas for my Pinewood Derby cars...which didn't always work, but were nonetheless fun anyway.
Some other memories involved explosives...well, sort of.  He led us in setting up a collection of complicated fireworks apparatus for July 4th one year.  Another summer, we built, painted, flew, and often crashed model rockets.
As long as I can remember, he'd had an interest in model railroading.  I vaguely remember a layout he'd built when I was a small boy.  Later, when we lived in Japan, he built another, more elaborate one, and even took suggestions from me, making it a lot of fun for me.  He'd left yet another, incomplete, layout behind when he passed.
Going through family photos recently recalled many other memories I'd nearly forgotten and some others I wish I still recalled.
While I'm sad I didn't have much contact with him the last few years, I'll still miss his laugh and the way he often lightly stomped a foot when he did so...how he popped his wrists...and many of his other mannerisms.  I have his hands, so in a real sense, he'll never be far from my heart.

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James Maxwell Miller

July 28, 1944 – April 19, 2013

Moore Funeral Home & Memorial Gardens

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