David Earl Miller Obituary (1921 - 2020)

“You have to believe in happiness, or happiness never comes – that’s the reason a bird can sing – on his darkest day he believes in spring.” Spring has finally come to the best friend a bird ever had. The swan hood ornament, proudly displayed on most every vehicle he ever owned, has flapped its wings into heaven. Ole Dave’s Bird Houses came to a peaceful end on Saturday, May 16, 2020, as David Earl Miller, age 95, exhaled his final peaceful breath and returned home to the melody of singing birds buoyed on the wings of angels. Nothing made him happier in the final years of his life than building bird houses in his shop and selling them at the Wheeler Farm Farmer’s Market and other craft venues. Complications of heart problems, COPD, and a bout of bacterial pneumonia proved to be more than his well-worn body could fight off. He played many roles during his earthly journey beginning immediately after his birth on Friday the 13th of November 1924 when his grandmother (Gam) took him into her home to rear him because his mother was very ill at the time of his birth. It wasn’t until eight years later that he returned to his birth family in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to join his father, John William Miller, his mother, Gertrude Josephine Pick, and his older brother, John. Although he was raised in a loving family, the influence of his beloved grandmother had a lasting impression on his life. Immediately after high school he joined the United States Navy and spent more than four years stationed in the South Pacific Theater as an Aviation Machinist’s Mate 3C and graduate of AMM School of Air-Radar. He was a proud member of the greatest generation who served during World War II. After his military discharge, while en route home to Colorado Springs, he passed through Salt Lake City to visit his brother who introduced him to his wife’s best friend. They fell in love immediately, and on April 30, 1946, he married Cathryn Jane Porter and best girlfriends became sisters-in-law for life. It became a family unit of which Dad was the last surviving member. Mom died on January 23, 2010. Together they formed a family that includes twin sons, David Earl, Jr. (SusieDee), and Matthew John (deceased), Mark Lee (Valerie), and Nancy Kay (Rocky Forman). He is also survived by five grandchildren: Christopher, Adam, Anthony (Amber), Jeffrey (Cari) and Randy (Ashley); and ten great grandchildren: Hannah, Isabeau, Dimitri, Dayanara, Julius, Dawson, Lincoln, Miller, Logan and Porter. In the early years of his marriage he worked as a Culligan Man and then trained as a carpenter, laying hardwood floors in residential areas throughout the Salt Lake Valley. He worked his way up to foreman and then superintendent at Culp Construction Company where he supervised the creation of the Salt Lake City Library, the remodel of the Park Administration Building and several dormitory complexes on the campus of the University of Utah, the New Alta Ski Lodge and Albion Day Lodge, the Park City Field’s Mall, Union Junior High School, and remodels of both East High School and the Clearfield High School gymnasium complex, to name but a few. He was a member of Carpenter’s Union Local 184. At age 62, he retired to the welding shop he built behind the family home that he also built and lived in for 68 years. There he became a much-sought-after craftsman of many trades. He loved a challenge, even if it involved a snow blower on the roof in the middle of winter snow resulting in an ugly fall, a trip to the ER, and a broken knee! He worked daily in his shop until ten days before his death. There was nothing he could not build from scratch, including multiple campers for his trucks and an entire fleet of tote-goat mini motorcycles. He loved a great adventure and regaled in telling stories of camping, hunting and fishing. He was an accomplished fly-fisherman who tied his own flies. He also enjoyed bow hunting and traveling the highways from Mexico to the Alaskan wilderness in his motor home. In his 50’s he became an avid golfer who only put away his clubs and golf cart when macular degeneration severely limited his eyesight. During these years, his standard answer to a ringing telephone was immediately, “Yeah, I’ll go,” without even knowing who was calling. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound; I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” How grateful we are that, once again, Dad can see. Family graveside services will be held on Wednesday, May 27 at 11:00 a.m. at the Murray City Cemetery, 5490 South Vine Street, Murray, Utah.