LeRoy “Lee” Arnold Miller

Lee was born in Ladysmith, Wisconsin on November 25, 1939, to Peter Joseph Miller and Marjorie Ilene Ridout Miller and was the oldest of 5 children raised in Weyerhaeuser, Wisconsin. After he was caught sneaking peaches from his mother’s canning efforts, Lee earned the nickname “Peaches” as a teenager. The story of “Peaches” followed Lee throughout his life and became a source of family legend with each telling. Lee graduated in 1959 from Weyerhaeuser High School where he excelled in Pole Vault and High Jump as a member of the track and field team, quarterback of the football team, and captain of the basketball team. Lee enlisted in the US Army in December 1959, served overseas in Germany, and was Honorably Discharged in 1965. Lee met Sharon Lynn Davis while roller skating with friends at the local roller rink. From then on, Lee and Sharon were inseparably in love and the two were married January 16, 1965. In search of a better life, Lee and Sharon packed up their three small children and what they could fit in their beloved station wagon named “Rover – who took us all over” and made a southern trek to Arizona in 1970. While in Arizona, Lee worked as a grain mill operator until fate intervened and he was offered the opportunity to move to El Paso, Texas to work for a new company building swimming pools and spas in 1972. Lee became highly regarded and sought after in the industry to plan, manage, and build swimming pools and spas. A few years later, Lee moved his family to Midland, Texas to help open and manage a new branch of the company. It was in Midland where Lee and Sharon eventually settled and raised their three children, Janet, Daniel, and Bonnie. Lee’s success provided the opportunity for him to eventually build his own business in the industry prior to retirement.

Aside from his professional drive and ambition, Lee had a serious love of the game of golf. His kids will tell you, “Long before there were remotes, we were the “tv remote” changing the channel from one golf game to another for dad.” Lee loved sharing the results of his golf game with friends and family and became excited and animated retelling his famed hole in one, his eagle shot, or his golf score for the day. After retirement, Lee spent his weekends as Marshall for Hogan Park Golf Course and shared his love of the sport with his long-time golf buddies and close friends of Hogan Park. Lee cherished his golf friendships and enjoyed sharing stories and laughable moments with them.

Lee enjoyed traveling and had the opportunity to spend over 2 weeks traveling with his oldest daughter, Janet, down the Pacific Coast of Central America, through the Panama Canal, and on to Cartagena, Colombia. The highlight of their adventure was river rafting in Costa Rica and deep-sea fishing in Guatemala where Lee wrangled in a huge Mahi-Mahi. Lee traveled to Cancun with his youngest daughter, Bonnie, and her family, enjoying the fun, sun, and ocean sand together. Their adventures included traveling aboard a “Pirate Ship”, deep-sea fishing for Mahi-Mahi, and watching the crew cook a feast for them from their deep-sea catch. One of Lee’s biggest wishes he fulfilled was to watch his favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers, play a game in Lambeau Field. Dad often recounted these memorable moments and stories around the kitchen table while playing cards with the family.

Lee was a master model aircraft builder. Over several decades he built many remarkable scale and sport aircraft including, a giant scale B-17, PA-28 Cherokee, P-40 Warhawk, C-182 Skylane, a C-310 Twin Cessna, and a de Havilland DHC-1B-2 Super Chipmunk. If he wasn’t golfing with his buddies or traveling with his daughters, he was tinkering and building RC airplanes. His love and skill of building RC airplanes was shared with his son, Daniel. In the months leading up to his passing, Lee and Daniel were working closely together building a 1/5th model Vaillancourt/Ziroli 01 Bird Dog with the hope of flying it together once completed. They spent hours building, laughing, telling stories, re-telling old stories, and building a father-son bond to last eternity. Lee was proud of all three of his children and in the last year of his life often stated he could pass-on a happy and fulfilled man having spent special quality time bonding with each one of his children.

Lee was preceded in death by his parents Peter Joseph Miller on May 5, 1995, and Marjorie Ilene Ridout Miller on March 17, 2011, as well as multiple aunts and uncles through the years.

Lee is survived by his wife of 56 years, Sharon Lynn Davis Miller; his oldest daughter Janet Lee (Wade) Browning of Conroe; his son Daniel LeRoy (Randi) Miller of Venus; youngest daughter Bonnie Sue (Mike) Clark of Midland; 11 grandchildren; 20 greatgrandchildren; his sisters Bertha (Ron) Langert, Ruth Bescheinen, Barbara Miller; brother John J. Miller; his half-sister Ethel Pierce; and numerous nieces and nephews.

There will be no formal services held. However, the family kindly requests for those interested in sharing their condolences and stories to visit Lee’s Tribute Wall to be enjoyed as a testament to the great husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, and friends he was to so many.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider making a memorial donation to Wounded Warrior Project for which Lee proudly supported: https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/donate

Romans 8: 28-39 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

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