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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Jul '98
LEO JOHN MILLER * '46
NO. 15406 * 24 AUG 1923 - 25 MAR 1997
Died in Melbourne, FL * Interred in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville,
NC
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Born and raised in Menasha, Wisconsin, Leo graduated
from St. Mary's High School. He attended Lawrence College, Appleton,
Wisconsin for a year before receiving his coveted appointment
to join the Class of 1946 at West Point on 1 July 1943.
Leo's cadet life is best described by his roommates,
Bob Myer and John Callaghan. "When the Class of '46 finished
it's traumatic first day, our room may have been the weirdest
assortment of the lot. John, the pious New Englander, brought
a cherubic innocence. Bob, fresh from the West Virginia hills,
had seldom ventured beyond the state's borders. Then there was
Leo. Leo stood as our seasoned bastion of maturity. The Germanic
cut of his chin, the short hair standing straight on end, the
deep Wisconsin bred voice - commanding in it's every syllable
- his no nonsense demeanor, his straight forward approach to
everything, somehow set him above us. Leo was always there and
ready. Leo never had any trouble with anything. Name the sport,
he could play it. Name the subject, he could help you. Name the
inspection, he was always the spooniest. I always felt one word
fitted Leo - A rock among the pebbles." Leo became a second
lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers at graduation.
It was during the Engineer Basic Course at Ft.
Belvoir, VA that Leo married Anne Callaway in Asheville, NC on
1 November 1946. Classmate Pat Pendergrass remembered: "How
really to know a classmate; choose the same branch, attend Basic
and Airborne School together; map Okinawa; receive orders as
follow 'Leo and Pat, take 50 men, 7 LCVPs and one LCT and map
the Northern Ryukus Islands. Build your own island camp. We'll
send a supply boat once a month.' Leo was the ideal partner for
such an ill-defined enterprise - forceful but cooperative, focused
on the objective, a solid planner and an apostle of by example.
We finished the mission in record time and took the results to
Japan where our wives met us on the dock. The Leo I knew was
mentally and physically tough, blunt and impatient with uncertainty
and indecision, and the kind of man, soldier, engineer, West
Pointer and friend I would choose to share any adventure."
The remainder of Leo's thirty years on active duty
was varied and challenging. He received his Masters in Civil
Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1954. Four more
overseas tours included Korea, Vietnam, Hawaii and Germany. In
1963 he became District Engineer at Patrick AFB, FL for the Titan
II and II programs. He spent most of his troop duty at Fort Bragg,
NC. as a company officer, 82nd Airborne, in 1950, then as Deputy
G-3, XVIII Airborne Corps in 1966, then commanded the 47 Eng
(Abn) Battalion in 1967 and in 1968 took command of the 160th
Engineer Heavy Construction Group. The last four years of active
duty were spent at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, AL. Leo retired
as a Colonel in 1976.
Leo and Anne bought property at Buck Island, Guntersville,Alabama
with about 600 feet of deep water on the banks of the Tennessee
River. As Anne said, "Leo's piece of paradise." E-2
classmate, Roy Beatty, wrote: "Leo bought a great piece
of property which needed a humongous amount of work. He enjoyed
such efforts, manual labor, really. We reestablished contact
and visited them in the 70s. During that stay he and I, while
in his pool talked about his toes being numb. Very shortly thereafter,
he proceeded to become ill. After much local consultation, he
was sent to the VA in Augusta, GA."
The final diagnosis was an extremely rare growth
within the spinal cord which deprived the nerves of blood thus
causing the death of all nerves from the lower rib cage downwards-complete
paralysis. Leo and Anne moved to Florida where they built a home
suitable to his needs. Leo died in his sleep 25 March 1997. He
is survived by his loving and caring wife, Anne; two sons, Christopher
and Mark; three brothers, Harold, Raymond and Phillip; a sister
Catherine and three grandsons.
After a brilliant career as an Army Engineer, Leo
Miller faced physical problems that would have devastated a lesser
man. Instead, he demonstrated a courage and fortitude that all
of us hope we might have if ever faced with the same challenges.
When his two plebe year roommates, Myer and Callaghan wrote about
Leo, they titled their remembrances "The Best Stay the Best
(To Leo)" They ended with these thoughts about their friend:
"This remembrance may be a bit rambling, but it's hard to
say good bye to a roommate if you don't say a little bit about
the true man. Leo's last years were not kind to him. Anne, staying
by him through it all, made those years last longer than they
ever would have had he not been so blessed. I saw what may have
been one of his last pictures as he sat surrounded by his supportive
brood and wondered, knowing Leo, if his last words might not
have been 'My cup runneth over.'"
His beloved Anne, who gave him so much during those
trying years, remembered: "Leo was quiet, determined, matter
of fact and compassionate. He endured his affliction with infinite
courage - never complaining, always considerate of others and
trying so hard to be as independent as possible."
The Class of 1946 is very proud to honor our courageous
classmate with the words he must have known would be said: "Well
Done, Leo; Be Thou At Peace!"
'46 Memorial Article Project and his wife, Anne
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