John Miller Remembered

by Robert J. Vanderbei

I am very saddened to hear that John Miller is no longer with us.  I met him back in 1999 when I first got started in astronomy and joined the AAAP.  He and I quickly became good friends.  Not only did we share an interest in astronomy, but we also both liked to play tennis and the two of us hit balls together many times back in the early 2000’s.  

As I recall, it was in 2005 when John was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer.  And, his diagnosis was only a month or two after John Bahcall was diagnosed with the same illness.   For those of you who don’t know (or remember), John Bahcall was the Chair of the Astrophysics Department at the Institute for Advanced Study here in Princeton.  And, his wife, Neta was, and still is, an active faculty member in the Astrophysics Department here at Princeton University.  

Anyway, both John’s were told that they would probably pass away less than a year after the diagnosis.  John Bahcall did succumb to the cancer only months after being diagnosed.  John Miller luckily and amazingly got to be with us for almost twenty more years.  So, I’m very sad that he’s no longer with us but I’m also very happy that we got to be with him many more years than we expected.  He was a great person and I’m glad that I got to be one of his friends.

Link to an article that John wrote for Sidereal Times.
https://princetonastronomy.com/2020/05/01/when-how-and-why-i-became-interested-in-astronomy/

John, you will be missed.

by Gene Allen

After I had been attending the meetings of the Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton for a few months, I found myself asking about “that grump who sits up toward the back of the auditorium and says ‘no’ to just everything.” With a chuckle, the name came back, “John Miller.” I was informed that while highly opinionated, he is intensely passionate about astronomy, science and the club, and he has been a vital force within the organization for many decades.

Some months later John and I became acquainted on a public night at the observatory. Aviation provided additional commonality, since he had earned his private license some years prior and I earned his respect, having completed an aviation career between the Air Force and American Airlines. I was impressed with his enthusiasm and the richness of his knowledge, experience, and dedication. He was on a first name basis with many of the Princeton astrophysics faculty and claimed the “special privilege” of asking questions when auditing their courses. His campaign to delete “Amateur” from our name failed to generate sufficient momentum to overcome more than a half century of history on its first round, but I am confident more rounds would have been launched.

John’s friendship felt like an honor to me. He would call me now and then, asking if I had time for a quick question. He would open with a query about thrust reversers or some aspect of airline operation, or maybe share some event that caused him frustration or irritation. We would invariably end up going from topic to topic for over an hour. I knew he lived alone and struggled against numerous severe health issues, so I was eager to provide a cheerful and respectful ear. I always gave him however much time he wanted, and when my wife heard his voice on speaker, she would smile and roll her eyes, knowing I was indisposed for an extended period.

Recently, John had requested my assistance in creating Excel graphs of some of his medical test data. He felt the doctors were inadequately monitoring trends and wanted to see the longitudinal data for himself. I offered to set them up from data he sent or go to his home and do it with him, but he never got far enough out from under his latest health challenges. He apologized to me more than once, of all things, for putting off that project.

We have all been aware that he has been living on borrowed time, but news of his passing was surprisingly painful. He has left a far bigger hole in my personal life than I would have expected. I truly enjoyed every conversation I had with him, and I will miss them. I had never seen the video of John pitching membership in the AAAP, and I will long cherish it. Thank you so much for that, Richard Sherman.

Link to the video that Rich did with John in 2020:

John’s obituary provided by his friend Vincent DaGrosa.
https://www.lestermemorialhome.com/obituary/john-miller