Dr. Vincent Paul Miller, Jr. passed away quietly on Monday, August 31, 2020 9:22am at St Andrew’s Assisted Living Facility in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He was 88 years old.
After a normal morning rising early and finishing breakfast, Dr. Miller felt tired, sat in his favorite chair and fell asleep, never to wake up again.
Dr. Miller is survived by his wife of 60 years, Alida Field (Ward) Miller who is 86 years old and resides at St. Andrews. He is also survived by his son, Bradley Cleland Miller who maintains homes in New York City and Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China. Dr. Miller’s son was 55 years old at the time of his father’s death.
Dr. Miller was born on May 11, 1932 to Vincent Paul Miller and his wife May (Reed) Miller in Edgewood, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
He completed his undergraduate studies at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio in 1954 with a major in Geology and studies in Music. He obtained a Masters in Geography from the Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania. His Masters thesis was titled, “A Geographical Analysis of the Locative Factors of the Pulp and Paper Industry in Eastern Canada.” It maintained particular focus on the Province of Quebec.
Following his Masters studies, Dr. Miller was drafted into the army and spent most of his time working at an army research facility located in Natick, Massachusetts. He had good memories of his experience in the army and often spoke of it with enthusiasm.
Following his service to his country, he took a teaching position in Geography at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio where he met his future wife, Alida, at a church meeting shortly after she had graduated from the College of Wooster. Not too many months later, on July 23, 1960, they married in the same church.
The young couple relocated to East Lansing, Michigan where Dr. Miller then commenced his PhD studies at Michigan State University. As part of Dr. Miller’s dissertation, the young couple lived in Oslo, Norway where Dr. Miller spent time at the University of Oslo. Following his classroom studies at Michigan State, he accepted a teaching position at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania in Geography and Regional Planning. It was in ther that Bradley, their son, was born on September 1, 1964. Dr. Miller completed his dissertation and obtained his PhD from Michigan State University in 1970.
The title of his dissertation was “The Spatial Impact of Isolation on Urban-Rural Relationships in Setesdal, South Norway.” Setesdal was an isolated valley in Norway that preserved traditions and a lifestyle from the Middle Ages. Dr. Miller’s thesis explored the hypothesis that the geographical features of mountains and the limited transportation grid had isolated the valley, preserving its way of life and insulating it from the changes that time and technology had brought to the rest of Norway and the rest of Europe. To summarize his thesis, the spacetime of the valley had remained unchanged while all around it had moved forward and geography was the cause of this warp in time and space.
In the 1980s Dr. Miller realigned his practice of regional development from the Nordic regions to focus on the developing world, the Caribbean in particular. Dr. Miller acted as a consultant to a Christian Missionary group called Ministries in Action. He helped design their practice of holistic missions which combined the preaching of the Christian faith with the action of developing the economies of the communities the group worked in. His research focused on the definition and implementation of these development projects and on regional development throughout the developing world.
Dr. Miller wrote frequently about the integration of Christian faith with the study of Geography during a period of time when this type of discussion was distinctly out of sync with many colleagues in the geographical profession. As part of this research, he began to work closely with a number of professors of Geography at Calvin University, a university located in Grand Rapids, Michigan which is owned and operated by the Christian Reformed Church.
Dr. Miller and his wife were both lifelong members of the Presbyterian Church. In Indiana, they were members of the Graystone Presbyterian church for approximately 55 years and more recently moved across the lawn and are now members of Calvary Presbyterian Church.
Dr. Miller and his wife were loyal to the institutions that helped shape them and were important donors to Muskingum University, the College of Wooster, and in particular to Calvin University, which is the alma mater of their son Bradley.
Because of the concerns of the current epidemic and the inability of Dr. Miller’s wife, Alida, to leave the nursing home during this period of lockdown, a memorial service will be arranged at a later date to celebrate Dr. Miller’s life. The family asks that friends pray for the family at this time and would welcome to hear from friends. Bradley may be reached by phone or text at 917-704-1096 and cards may be sent to St. Andrew’s for Alida and would be very much appreciated. Unfortunately, the nursing home is currently closed to visitors but Zoom video calls may be arranged through Bradley. These would be most welcome moments to catch up for Alida and are encouraged.
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