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One man seldom amasses as many distinguishing features in a lifetime as John Miller.
And Miller certainly isn't done living.
He is "Mr. Miller" to his students at Blakewood Elementary School, an inspiration to the high school track and cross country athletes he helps coach, a hall-of-famer at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he ran distance, a train enthusiast, husband, father and self-proclaimed "king of the one-liners."
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John Miller (right) recieves a plaque after being named Wisconsin's Vietnam Veteran of the Year in June. Presenting the award is John Margowski, president of the Wisconsin Vietnam Veterans of America. |
As of last month, Miller had a new accolade to add to his already immense list. The Vietnam Veterans of America named him 1999 Wisconsin Vietnam Veteran of the Year.
He was surprised by the honor and proud because his daughter and son-in-law, Valerie and Gary Richter of Oak Creek, had nominated him, Miller said. He went to an awards banquet in June to receive an outstanding achievement award from the organization, but before the night was over, he had been presented with the Veteran of the Year award.
"We had seen the article looking for nominations in the Oak Creek Pictorial, and I knew right away I had to do this for my dad," Valerie Richter said. "It seemed perfect for him, and I thought he really deserved this."
Letters of praise
Former coaches, students, fellow church parishioners, family and friends contributed letters and their reasons why Miller was an outstanding candidate for the award. As a father, Miller taught his children the importance of family and belief in God, Richter said.
"I see so many things he did for me that I didn't necessarily understand or appreciate as a child," she said. "You kind of catch glimpses of these teachings when you become a parent."
However, long before Miller was ever a parent or grandparent, he was a Bay View High School student who felt like he didn't fit in. Running, however, turned his life around, giving him a positive attitude and outlook, he said.
"I volunteered for Vietnam, volunteered for units and volunteered for missions I was on. It was exciting work, and I was certainly proud of doing it." |
He decided to attend UWM and ran cross country, but the stint lasted only a semester. He landed a job as a mailman, but when the United States Army began drafting young men to serve in the Vietnam War, Miller volunteered.
After basic training and infantry training, Miller was selected for non-commissioned officer candidate school. He went to Vietnam in 1968, serving for a year as a long-range reconnaissance patrol member, and becoming a sergeant.
"I have no regrets," Miller said. "I volunteered for Vietnam, volunteered for units and volunteered for missions I was on. It was exciting work, and I was certainly proud of doing it."
It was a hard time to enlist, because of how many people protested the war, but Miller felt it was his duty as an American to serve. The life-and-death situations Miller faced during constant combat situations in the war were also quite difficult.
He recalled recently watching the movie "Saving Private Ryan," in which characters visit the grave of a soldier who shared Miller's name. Seeing that tombstone, inscribed with the name "John Miller," brought tears to the eyes of Christine, his wife of 31 years, because that marker was a constant, potential reality while John was overseas, he said.
A learning experience
The sights of war took their toll on the young man, but they also opened opportunities for personal maturity and influenced his life perspectives.
"As a result of all that, it helped me with a lot of things throughout my life -- like if I could make it in Vietnam, I could make it anywhere," he said.
Bill Kane, fifth-grade teacher at Blakewood, said his friend of 25 years is deserving of the award he won.
"He has always looked at his military service as his duty, and he's very proud," Kane said. "I know a lot of people look at this part of their life as a detriment or a bad time, but I think he looks at it as a growing time and a challenge."
Upon returning to Wisconsin after his military duty was over, Miller began to feel he could accomplish more than he could in his previous mail carrier position. He went back to UWM in June 1969 and resumed his infatuation with running. Under the coaching leadership of John Tierney, Miller lettered eight times in track and cross country, becoming state champion in several distance events. Years later, he was inducted into the university's Athletic Hall of Fame.
"I just decided to be a teacher because I could help other kids have the experiences I had when I was a little kid." |
His sport also acted as a type of therapy for the veteran.
"I think the running got me through everything as far as Vietnam things," he said. Like he jests, "If you run every day, you're better off in the long run."
Still trying to decide what to do in his second year of college, Miller remembered how running energized him and encouraged his esteem as a child. He decided to pursue a career in physical education to give children the benefit of what he had learned.
"I found myself being positively influenced again, like the old days," he said of his rediscovery of the power of running. "I just decided to be a teacher because I could help other kids have the experiences I had when I was a little kid."
Miller's career led him to the South Milwaukee School District where he has taught for 26 years, helping kids stay active and teaching them to alleviate their problems through fitness.
In his spare time
Miller is involved in enough spare-time activities to seemingly fill a newspaper, but they include community volunteer work, such as announcing high school sporting events and presenting programs about trains to senior citizens.
Says Miller in his usual form, "I like trains because I'm training all the time anyway."
Trains, the full-size ones, not the models, have interested Miller since his early years growing up next to the tracks in Bay View. As an adult, he volunteers at the Illinois Railway Museum, working on the old trains and sometimes operating them. He also belongs to organizations that promote trains, their preservation and restoration.
"He has accomplished so much," Richter said of her father. "It amazes me my father has time in a day to do all the things he does, but he does them selflessly."
One cannot separate Miller from his sense of humor, either. His quick puns, which some friends describe as awful, others as corny, but all as pure Miller, help him keep people smiling.
The characteristic stems from his 15 years spent calling bingo at St. Matthew's Catholic Church in Oak Creek, where he lived for 20 years.
Now a South Milwaukee resident, the jokes have not been left along the wayside. Perhaps the students for which he is assistant track coach at South Milwaukee High School know best the lines that he uses to keep the athletes loose and on their toes. Over the years, they have all heard him ask his hypothetical horse, "why the long face?"
But around Miller, a long face is difficult to muster if you try.
"I do have a sense of humor," he said. "It keeps everybody happy. What's best about elementary phy-ed is everybody comes in smiling and leaves smiling. When people are done talking to me, I hope they're glad to have seen me."
Posted August 13, 1999
