Joe Miller was born in Walla Walla, Washington on July 20, 1948, passed away after a long battle with Parkinsons on December 10, 2024.
Joe grew up in Phoenix, Arizona where his father worked as a master carpenter. While growing up, his father passed on his carpentry skills, and Joe used them to make beautiful wood artifacts. During this time, Joe also learned to tinker with cars and trucks. In recent years Joe loved to attend car shows and to tinker with his pride and joy, a 1948 Ford truck.
Joe graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Illinois, and Northwestern University’s Navy ROTC program. He flew for the Navy from 1970-1978. He instructed in the T-28 and flew the US-2, C-117, C-131, and CT-39. While flying the C-117 in the Far East, Joe became a Cubi Dog Centurion having completed over one hundred missions at Mama Lee’s in Taegu, Korea. He was hired by Braniff in 1978 and was a “plumber” on the DC-8 out of Miami to South America, until he got caught by the furlough in 1980. Joe worked with his dad for a couple of years building a custom home near Phoenix, then worked at Motorola’s Tactical Electronics Division for two years. Joe went back to the Far East with the Navy from 1986-1987 flying the C-12, then returned to Braniff 2 as a Captain on the B737 in 1988. This time, Joe’s Braniff career lasted all the way to bankruptcy in 1989. Joe joined America West in 1990 and served as Captain on the B737 and A320. In 1992, Joe went through a final furlough as America West went through bankruptcy. He was recalled to America West in 1993, after a brief period of flying for Ryan International, and medically retired in 2008 from US Airways, which by this time had merged with America West. Joe retired from the Navy in 1996 at the rank of Captain.
Joe is survived by his wife Caryn, and their two children, Jacob and his wife Lindsay with their two children Adalei and Ember, Robyn and her wife Melissa with their two children Evan and Sonder, as well as his sister Marilyn Owendoff and her husband Jim and their two sons, Joe’s nephews, Nathan and John and their families.
He will be missed greatly by all whose lives he touched.
