Born: Bayside, Queens, New York, to Edward and Emma Muller, April 26, 1936
Deceased: Annandale, Virginia, March 30, 2015 (age 78)
Bob Miller was a loving husband and family man with a strong faith, a ready smile, and a gift for turning strangers into friends. He was a fighter who overcame polio in his youth, twice beat cancer, and, while fighting a third and final bout with the disease at age 78, displayed remarkable courage, generosity, and good cheer. Gregarious, witty, and dependable to the end, his sense of humor was the last thing to go.
He grew up in Queens, New York, graduated from Bayside High School, and studied at New York University. In his teens, he set pins at a local bowling alley and served as a golf caddie at the Oakland Country Club on Long Island, where he met and befriended Bill Kenny, the famed lead singer of the Inkspots. Inspired by that friendship, he worked for a time in the recording industry with familiar talents like Little Anthony and the Imperials.
The after-effects of polio, acquired at age 19 while serving as a swim instructor at a boys’ camp, derailed his planned career as a boxer, but didn’t stop him from remaining an avid swimmer and athlete into his late seventies.
In the 1950s, he tried his hand at radio announcing and worked as a truck loader for Railway Express before settling on a career in consumer finance and mortgage lending. From a first job at Household Finance in New York, investigating delinquent loan cases, he rose to be a divisional directors at ITT Corporation, one of the world’s largest conglomerates. In the 1980s, he founded his own company, California Financial Network.
In 1963, he met Rosemarie Wallenda, of the world-renowned circus family, at a German Club dance in Sarasota, Florida, and the two were soon wed. They would share the next half-century together, raising two children amid frequent moves driven by corporate promotions. The Millers’ journey took them from Florida to New York, Tennessee, Colorado, Arizona, California, North Carolina, and finally Virginia.
In retirement, Bob took up hobbies, serving as a boxing coach to at-risk youth, a certified personal trainer, and a tobacco pipe enthusiast. A devout Christian, he developed a personal apostolate well-suited to his outgoing nature: making friends of the sick and lonely in nursing homes.
Bob leaves behind his beloved wife Rosemarie Wallenda Miller; their two children, Heidi Marie Miller Clancy and Kenneth A. Miller; his brother, Edward K. Miller; his son-in-law, Dean Clancy; and four grandchildren: Caitlin (age 21), Andrew (17), Alexander (14), and Joseph (11) Clancy.
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