Edward Don Miller

Edward Don Miller was a native of Columbus, Georgia. He grew up in Bibb City, where his mother--of the Slocomb, Alabama Martin family--worked in the Bibb textile mill for over 40 years. At age 17, he joined the Merchant Marines and did tours to Italy and Sicily, and later served in the U.S. Air Force where he was trained in the handling of highly sensitive cryptographically encrypted information. He worked hard from the time he took his first full-time job at age 15 and did many things including working in the railroad yards of Columbus and Chicago, operating newspaper typesetting machines, retail sales, guiding fishing trips on the St. John's River, and managing the vending machines at Callaway Gardens. He is preceded in death by his parents, Brown Edward Miller and Modell Brownell Martin (Goode). He is survived by his wife--"my girl"--of nearly 55 years, Carol Ann Joy Miller, and their daughter, Rebecca (Becky) Miller Parrish. He is also survived by his two other children, Cathy Phyllis Roesch and Gary Edward Miller and their children and grandchildren.

Ed ("Don" to his mother's family) was known as a man of tremendous integrity, intelligence, pride, love for his family, and appreciation of the natural world. As a boy in Columbus, he roamed the woods where there are now gas stations and strip malls and spent a lifetime hunting and fishing. He and Carol would often drive more than 4 hours to the Florida coast just to picnic next to the Gulf of Mexico, returning to Columbus in the afternoon. He loved good food and was always ready to sit down to one of Carol's home-cooked meals.

My dad had many adventures between growing up in Columbus and returning with his family to live there after his mother's death. He enjoyed telling stories about his life, and many of them I wrote down so we could continue to share them when his memories were no longer clear. From him, I inherited my appreciation for the great music he loved, my artistic ability, love of nature and the outdoors, and my fondness for home life and simple pleasures. He enjoyed being around people and made more than a few lasting friendships. His friends and family know he could occasionally be temperamental, impatient, and oversensitive, but he balanced these human fallibilities with general good will, humor, honesty, and generosity of spirit. Safe travels, Daddy! You will be tremendously, eternally missed.