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Charles Ernest Miller, Jr. was born on 2 Oct 1932 in Springfield,
Greene County, MO, to Charles Ernest Miller and Ruby Nell Dick. As a teenager
during World War II, he learned about military service from news reports and was
influenced by the experiences of two uncles, one in the Navy at Pearl Harbor,
and the other in the Army in Europe with GEN Patton. At Lafayette High School,
Charlie’s leadership traits resulted in his being elected student body and
senate president. He also excelled in ROTC. Graduating in 1950, he received an
appointment to West Point from Representative Phil J. Welch and was admitted as
a member of the Class of 1954.
At West Point, Charlie was on the Cadet Rifle Team and
participated in the Dialectic Society, Radio Club, and Skeet Club. He also loved
intramural sports. He was always in great shape athletically, with broad
shoulders and really strong arms. At 5’9” he could stare down some pretty big
players on the playing field, where he acted as if he had never heard of the
term “friendly strife.” A favorite two-on-one wrestling game with his two
roommates during the New York winters always ended with Charlie on the winning
side, even when he was the one-man team. Among the other members of Company H-1
and his classmates, he was known for his positive attitude, high standards, and
willingness to help others. He graduated 120th in his class of 633 cadets.
Charlie met Miss Lorraine Lynne Long at home on graduation leave in June of
1954. Their friendship blossomed, and, in June of 1955, they were married in the
Cadet Chapel at West Point. The couple would make ten moves over a period of 25
years and welcome two sons and three daughters.
After graduation, Charlie entered the Signal Corps. Then, he
transferred to the Armor branch and had assignments at Ft. Benning, GA, Ft.
Knox, KY, Europe, Viet Nam, and Ft. Leavenworth, KS, where he attended the
Command and General Staff College. He earned a master’s degree in history at
Duke University in Durham, NC, and was subsequently assigned as professor in the
Department of Military Art and Engineering at West Point. Next, he served at Ft.
Hood, TX, Korea, Ft. Hood again, and The Presidio in San Francisco, CA. As
Charlie’s promising career progressed, he also excelled as a loving husband and
endearing father. At the zenith of his career, with unmistakable potential for
general officer rank, the needs of his family became paramount. At the
conclusion of his assignment at The Presidio in June 1980, Charlie retired.
Charlie then earned a master’s degree in federal taxation from
Baylor University in Waco, TX, and joined the firm of Greenstein Logan in Temple
as a tax specialist. In 1994, he joined the corporate tax department of the
McLane Distribution and Logistics Company and worked there for nine years.
Some 23 years later, his death occurred on Veterans Day 2003. The
following reflections on Charlie’s life were submitted by friends and family—
From oldest son Charlie III:
“Dad prepared the family for what we needed in life. Among other
things, we each developed qualities of duty, integrity, and ‘stick-to-it’ness.
I can still see him in the living room at Ft. Leavenworth as he left for Viet
Nam saying, ‘You’re in charge now.’ It was his way of setting me with a sense
of responsibility.”
From a daughter-in-law:
“What I remember most about ‘the Colonel’ is his laugh; so many
kinds of laughter: a sing-song ‘ha-ha,’ his trademark chortle, a side-splitting
guffaw. He laughed so hard at times he wiped tears from his eyes. And the
stories … they came tumbling out of him like boulders down a mountain. Each
story infused with solid heartfelt values. This is his legacy to us: the stories
and his laughter.”
From his youngest son:
“Dad was always teaching me little lessons. What you might call
a ‘Let me spare you the hardship I suffered’ which I took as ‘safety lecture
#12382’—definitely one to tune out. However, I’d let him do his speech, nod my
head and say ‘yes, sir.’ Sometimes, of course, he’d let me find out the hard
way, allowing me to rub whatever limb I hurt and then proceed to explain the
law of physics and why I can’t defy gravity. Those were Life Lessons. Sometimes
I understood, sometimes I didn’t—every time he’d laugh and call me a klutz.
Having become a father myself, I now get to teach my son Life Lessons.”
From associates after he retired from the Army:
“Charlie was never too busy to teach, counsel, or listen. He used
his blue reviewing pencil to gently correct our errors, his patient manner to
teach, and his powers of observation to cut through the unimportant and help us
see things as they truly were. He brought his West Point code of honor, combined
that with our corporate values in honesty, integrity, and high Christian
principles, and taught us all how to be better human beings.”
“My favorite story about Charlie personifies the intense dignity
with which he lived his life. In the rain one day, everyone was running,
squealing, and splashing through the parking lot except Charlie, who strolled in
as if it were a sunny day. ‘Where is your umbrella,’ I asked. ‘Colonels don’t
carry umbrellas,’ he replied with a smile. Illness and advanced age have a way
of stealing the dignity from even the toughest of us. Charlie did not want that.
We found a measure of comfort in knowing that he escaped that fate.
Charles Ernest Miller, Jr. was buried with full military honors
in Bellwood Memorial Park, Temple, TX, on 15 Nov 2003.
From Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Lorraine treasures
Charlie’s memory as “He was a verray parfit, gentil Knyght.”
Well done, Charlie. Be Thou at Peace.
—Family and classmates
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