James “Jim” W. Miller

       James W. “Jim” Miller — father, veteran, volunteer, steelworker for nearly half a century, raconteur, and much more — passed away in Valparaiso August 20, just five days before his 39th birthdayʼs 39th anniversary.  (He was also a Jack Benny fan.)

       Born in Valpo in 1946 to Charles Ray Miller and the former Gladys L. Wilson, Jim resided in Porter County most of his life.  By far the longest of his few periods away was his eight years in the US Air Force, which stationed him not only around the country and around the world but also around Indiana.  One of Jimʼs assignments, to Grissom AFB, allowed his son to coincidentally be born in the same Hoosier State that they have both called home.

 
       Jimʼs activity in the steelworkersʼ union included representing his fellow laborers in grievance proceedings.  Normally humble (but neat) in dress throughout his life, as griever he wore business attire, realizing that dressing like the executives and the arbitrators helped establish him as a respectable and like‐minded equal in their conception and therefore made him a more effective advocate for wronged workers.

       Jimʼs interests numbered too many to catalogue here, and he enjoyed conversing on a great variety of subjects.  This onetime Cubmasterʼs personal pursuits often tended toward the antiquarian and the outdoorsy, even both at once — as when he hiked the Appalachian Trail with an old‐timey wood‐frame backpack.  For years he was the resident farmer of the Indiana Dunesʼ Chellberg Farm, entertaining and edifying countless visitors while raising animals and crops using techniques from around 1900, which he learned from reading old books on farming and minutiously studying old photographs.  But he also defied easy categorization, for example embracing the modern in driving his late‐model red Corvette convertible.  Given the scholarly mindset with which he approached so many things in life, itʼs fitting that he spent his last waking moments at Chestertonʼs Westchester Public Library, where he had often explored a world of knowledge and ideas.

       Surviving Jim are his son Erik Miller, of Bloomington; his brother Gene Miller, of Plainwell, Michigan; a niece, three grandnieces, one grandnephew, and one great‐grandniece; many cousins; and numerous friends made virtually everywhere he went.

       Details of the memorial service to be held at White–Love Funeral Home in Chesterton (whitelovefuneralhome.com) are pending.  Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to Shirley Heinze Land Trust (heinzetrust.org), whose conservation successes in northwest Indiana include many of the trails which Jim enjoyed walking in the company of friends.

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