Bill Miller’s children like to say their father was short in stature but larger than life.
William Russell Miller was born April 6, 1922, in segregated Kentucky and went on to become a vice president at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., retiring in 1987. After leaving Goodyear, he worked at the University of Akron and remained involved in another business venture, spent two years teaching capitalism in Russia under the Peace Corps and was active in numerous Akron-area organizations. He was a World War II Army veteran who got a bachelor’s degree under the G.I. Bill at Tennessee State University and then a master’s degree at the University of Akron.
He died Dec. 26 in Cocoa Beach, Fla., after a lengthy illness. He previously lived in the Akron area and in Shaker Heights.
“He took up all of the space in the room when he was there,” said one of his daughters, Shana Miller.
“He grew up in the segregated South, the Jim Crow South,” she said. He and his brother could not attend a nearby white high school and instead lived weekdays in Somerset, Ky., to attend an all-black school there where they also worked odd jobs to pay expenses.
“They would hitchhike to get back and work on the family farm” on weekends, Shana Miller said.
Her father had a love for education, knew the importance of it and often became infuriated with people who didn’t take advantage of it, she said.
He worked at the Goodyear atomic energy plant in Piketon, Ohio, and then moved to Goodyear’s corporate headquarters in Akron, where he was promoted and eventually became vice president of governmental personnel relations. His family believes he was the first African-American vice president at a major rubber company.
They became one of the first black families to live in Fairlawn in the 1960s, Shana Miller said.
Her father also is survived by his wife of 18 years, Edith. Besides Shana Miller, he is survived by children Richard Ross, Anita Rankin, and Rosanne Miller; two sisters; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews; and a sister-in-law.
A one-hour visitation starts at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home, 529 W. Thornton St., Akron. A homegoing service follows at 9:30 a.m. in the Stewart & Calhoun chapel.
The family requests that instead of flowers that donations be made to the William R. and Edith Pitt-Stamps Miller Endowment Fund, care of Tennessee State University Foundation, 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd., Nashville, Tenn. 37209.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com