Rev. Robert Day Miller

Rev. Robert Day Miller, 81, of Lake Lure, North Carolina, passed away peacefully on May 3, 2016.

Robert was born in Washington, DC, to Francis Pickens and Helen Hill Miller.  He spent his early years growing up on the family’s farm in Fairfax, Virginia, where he developed a profound appreciation for the beauty and miracle of Nature. 

The family moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, for Robert’s middle and high school years.  He received his undergraduate degree from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and his Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, with additional studies in Edinburgh, Scotland, at New College of Edinburgh University.  In 1957, he married the former Nancy Adrian Rhoads of Leesburg, Virginia.

Robert was foremost a servant of justice for all people in this world.  He was a man of pure heart.  His courage, integrity and spiritual leadership in fighting for freedom and fairness grew to become legendary in the communities where he labored.  For this work, beginning in the late 1950s, Robert chose the segregated Deep South, where every day – with his quiet intellect, keen insight, and shrewd wit and diplomacy – he challenged ingrained systems of discrimination to change.   As the decades rolled past, Robert’s foresight and earnest endeavors in this work were time after time proven prophetic, as society came to embrace and codify the values that he and his coworkers embodied wherever they found themselves.

Robert served as pastor in churches and communities in Tuskegee, Alabama; St. Petersburg, Florida; Montgomery, Alabama; and Louisville, Kentucky.  From 1977-1990, he was Director of National Mission (PCUS), and of Educational and Congregational Ministries (PCUSA), at the Presbyterian Church headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and Louisville, Kentucky, respectively.  His final professional post, from 1993-1999, was as Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina in Elizabethtown, North Carolina.  In 2005, he and Nancy retired permanently to their mountain home in Lake Lure, North Carolina

In addition to his sterling service to God and humanity, Robert’s other hobbies and talents included sailing, woodworking, gardening, cooking, and story-telling.  Among his oceanic sailing adventures, he twice crossed the Atlantic with family and friends; and he sailed to Havana, Cuba as part of a friendship mission flotilla from the United States in 1999.  In his woodworking shop, he made beautiful works of art.  In every home their ministry took them to, he transformed the grounds into a blooming garden of flowers, fruit trees, vegetables, and havens for his children. 

Robert’s greatest gift may have been the deeply devoted manner in which he cared for the people in his life – as husband and father, son, brother, uncle, and loving, compassionate friend.

Robert is survived by his wife, Nancy; children, John (Krista), Margaret (Roger Growe), Helen (Eric Tarleton) and Francis (Celinda); brother, Andrew Pickens Miller and wife Penny Farthing; granddaughters, Lillian, Isla, and Avalon; grandsons, Adrian, Steven, Elliot, and Ian; step-grandchildren, Daniel and Sara; and seven nieces and nephews. 

Private interment will occur at 4:00 p.m., Friday, June 3, 2016 at Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia. 

A memorial service will take place the following day, Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 2:00 p.m., at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, North Carolina.   

In lieu flowers, donations may be sent to; Dougbe River Presbyterian School, Grand Gedeh County, Liberia, West Africa.  To donate via Pay Pal, http://drpsl.com/ways-to-support-the-school/ or by check, Dougbe River School, P.O. Box 18017, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118 and/or donations may be sent to Seba Niketan (Service House) Rural Health Education Program, Rampurhat, West Bengal, India, send check to, International Federation for Family Health, 1127 River Forest Road, Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312.