Richard William Miller

Richard W. (“Dick”) Miller, age 83, passed to new life on April 15, 2016 in his home surrounded by his wife Bernadette and his loving family. Dick Miller was man for and with others. He often quoted Sir Winston Churchill: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Dick lived this to the fullest. He was a brilliant attorney who championed the rights of the underdog and a philanthropist who walked among those he sought to help.

Dick was born to Robert W. and Mary Jane Miller on October 15, 1932 in Kansas City, Missouri, the youngest of four children. At a very young age he learned the importance of giving back. His father, a veteran of World War I was too old to enlist for the second Great War but left a promising law practice to join the civilian war effort. This meant a very modest living in their bungalow home a block west of Troost within the shadow of St. Francis Xavier Parish, and Rockhurst High School and College – all of which Dick attended. Dick was greatly influenced at a young age by the Jesuit priests who frequented the home and who instilled in him a lifelong passion for the Eucharist, education and service.

Dick graduated from Rockhurst High School in the “great class of 1949.” Until his death he continued to gather his classmates for meals, a cold beer and fellowship. Although he was diagnosed with a neuro-muscular disease early in life that physicians predicted would drain him of energy, his tremendous drive to better the world turned him into a dynamo. At the age of 16 he graduated from high school and later from Rockhurst University after three years in 1952 at the age of 19. With a life-long ambition to change the world he entered the University of Kansas City Law School (now UMKC) and graduated with an L.L.B in 1955. By the age of 23 he had completed an advanced law degree (L.L.M.) in Constitutional Law and a federal judicial clerkship with the Honorable Albert A. Ridge.

In the summer of 1953 he met a young woman on the front steps of Redemptorist Church following a novena prayer service. On their third date he announced that he intended to marry her – in five years. She laughed and scurried away, certain never to see him again. On June 1, 1957 Bernadette Owens and Dick Miller wed at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Kansas City. To this day she says he is the best man she has ever known. Nine months later they welcomed their first of nine children. Family life was off and running.

Dick joined the firm of Margolin & Kirwan in 1955 where he worked for 8 years. At the age of 31 and with five children and a wife to care for, he left the opportunity to become a partner and started his own firm. With no clients but a young supportive wife as his first assistant he launched a law practice that would mentor dozens of lawyers, create new law and defend the rights of the small business or individual against the power of big government and big business.

The practice of the law was not only Dick's vocation; it was his avocation. The hallmarks of his sixty years of practice were his fierce intellect, his tenacity and his zealous representation of his clients. He and his son Steve, with whom he practiced for 25 years, obtained a verdict in excess of $116 million for a family business against one of the world’s largest insurance companies. In 2005, Dick was recognized as the Missouri Lawyer of the Year. His list of his accolades include: Dean of the Trial Bar, Best of the Bar, Top 100 Super Lawyer in Missouri, Who's Who in America and others. Dick kept his accomplishments quiet and chose to simply let his work speak for itself as the work was its own reward.

He was fearless in his faith that God would provide and confident that hard work could overcome all. But even as he threw himself into the profession he dearly loved, family was always first. Many a summer he spent in the stands at 3&2 stadium with an expandable folder of work and a recorder, dictating between his sons at-bats. He was as enthusiastic attending ballet, piano and voice recitals and summer theatre camps.

For 17 years, he coached the 7th & 8th grade football team at Visitation Grade School. It was a great way to connect with his five sons and their friends while pursuing a sport he loved. Year after year he captured championships but more important to him were the lives of the young boys he forever shaped.

Dick loved sports and was a ferocious competitor. He introduced his family to handball, and golf; ice hockey and figure skating; and together they learned to play tennis and snow ski. He knew absolutely nothing about soccer but transferred his coaching skills to girls’ soccer to participate in his daughter’s lives.

No one enjoyed a family vacation more. Clark Griswold has nothing on Dick Miller. The crazy adventures on which he led his family are the subject of lore and created indelible memories. For decades, the family rendezvoused each year in the Colorado mountains for skiing and hiking. Europe will never be the same. One trip in particular, trekking in a VW van with seven children, from Rome to Amsterdam over 4 weeks and eight cities made a lasting impression. Travel with the family was an intrinsic part of his children’s education and Dick opened the world to them.

Life revolved around the family dinner table and the Sunday brunches for the family of eleven and priest friends where he fried up pounds of his favorite food group – bacon. Family meals, at home and out, were a part of every celebration.

Dick’s ambitions were never external; they stemmed from a deep desire to help others, many of whom he might never meet. He invested in the welfare of others wholeheartedly and helping others to live in dignity, were the dividends he cherished. Dick had an intrinsic talent to see a need in the community, then to galvanize others to act and establish the services as a vital part of the city he loved.

There is no better example of this than in his role as co-founder and chairman of Christmas in October, a volunteer program that mobilized local businesses, unions and unskilled labor to volunteer rehabilitating homes in some of Kansas City’s most desperately neglected neighborhoods. In the 32 years since its founding more than 10,000 homes have been given everything from a fresh coat of paint to hot water heaters, new roofs and wheelchair ramps. Dick was a man of word and deed: happy to swing a hammer and at ease accepting the grateful embrace of one of the elderly, disabled or in-need homeowners whose daily lives were more safe, secure and dignified because of the work.

Education was a priority for Dick. He not only educated all of his own children at Catholic high schools and universities but countless students attended Rockhurst High School and St. Teresa’s Academy and Rockhurst University through his generosity. He quietly paid for children of hard working immigrants he met through Bishop Sullivan Center, and for children whose loss of a parent jeopardized their educational opportunities. Dick founded Cristo Rey High School in Kansas City and helped establish Boys Hope / Girls Hope of Kansas City. His efforts extended to some of the poorest regions of the world. The founder of Shanti Bhavan School in India credits Dick with saving their school for impoverished children. These are the acts we know of and there are countless more that are revealed regularly.

Dick attributes his love of the Arts solely to his wife, Bernadette. Ever willing to learn and never the one to move in half measures, Dick grew into an active supporter and Board member of the Kansas City Symphony, The Kansas City Lyric Opera, and the Kansas City Regional Arts Council. Artistic directors, conductors, performers and administrators considered him a friend, ally, confidant and legal adviser as well as enthusiastic patron. On a perfect day that began with family mass, Dick enjoyed one last glorious trip the Symphony. As the full orchestra brought Gershwin’s “American in Paris” to a rousing finale, the stroke that would ultimately claim his life had probably begun.

Faith animated every element of Dick’s life. Daily Mass was a must and he often said his good humor was because he could place his problems on the altar and leave lighter, lifted by God's grace. His unflappable Faith was an intrinsic part of his loving marriage, his abundant generosity, his commitment to excellence and his peace to the very end.

Dick’s faith was not without rigorous examination; it was grounded in reason, dialogue and appreciation of all people of good will. For almost a decade, Dick convened a theological conference in Kansas City to promote continuing scholarly exploration of Catholic thought. The Church in the 21st Century attracted scholars from around the country and resulted in the publication of seven books, edited by his son, Richard, a professor of theology at Creighton University.

Dick accepted recent health trials, and a diagnosis of PSP, a rare and progressive neuromuscular disease, with utter humility and calm. His compassionate understanding of suffering and illness was deepened over the course of over 25 trips to the Catholic Pilgrimage site of Lourdes, France with his wife, Bernadette. There he served an international community of the terminally ill and handicapped with his beloved members of the Order of Malta, of which he was an active member for 32 years. He considered his humble service there to be among his most rewarding.

Dick is survived by his wife, Bernadette, of 59 years, nine children, Steve (Susan), Mark (Ann Hoak), Paul (Kathy), Anne Kindscher, Susie Schilling (Nick), Julie McCann (Mike), Jim (Krisann), Rich (Mariana) and Michelle (Mike Van Epp), thirty grandchildren, Maddie and Lucy Miller; Sally (Robert Walker) Molly, Scott (Jenna Hackendahl) Grace, Danny and Eddie Miller; Lauren (Eric) Jensen, Allison (Matthew) Smith (and daughter, Ava)., Elizabeth, Sarah, John, and David Kindscher; Katherine (Christian Clark and great-grandchild, Henry), Patrick (Ali), Nicholas, Megan and Christopher Schilling; Emily, Brendan, Claire, Colin and Francie McCann; Shamus, Bridget and Tess Miller; Sebastian, Alexander and Dominic Miller.

Dick was preceded in death by his infant daughter, Mary Bernadette, his parents Robert and Mary Jane Miller, his brother, Bob and sister, Martha Roult.

The family looks forward to greeting visitors on Monday, April 18th at 5:00pm for a prayer service and eulogies followed by family greeting until 7:30pm at Visitation Church, 5141 Main Street, KCMO 64113. The Funeral Mass of Resurrection will also be at Visitation Church on Tuesday, April 19th at 10:00am. Burial in Calvary Cemetery, 6901 Troost Avenue will follow immediately thereafter. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the charities Dick helped to found: Christmas in October, Cristo Rey and Boys Hope Girls Hope. Condolences may be made at: www.mcgilleymidtownchapel.com