Red Miller: A Windward Treasure

A.T. ‘Red’ Miller

Memorial services were held last week in Kaneohe and Kailua for A.T. “Red” Miller, a champion of the arts in Windward Oahu, who died Sept. 28 at age 95 at the Kailua Hospice Hawaii house.

A longtime Kailua resident and an active contributer at Pohai Nani, his home in later years, Miller was a patron of Paliku Theatre and supporter of Windward Readers Theater, Kailua Library, Kawainui Marsh and Kailua Historical Society. He and his second wife, Hope, helped establish and promote Windward Senior Day Care Center. He sang in the Kailua United Methodist Church choir for years.

Also a World War II pilot with many stories to tell, Miller was honored as a Living Legend by Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island.

Miller and his first wife, Eleanor, built a house on Kailua Beach when he retired from the Air Force in 1972, following a career that took him on bombing raids in northern Japan; for a time he was a prisoner of war in Siberia. Later the Washington state native did intelligence work in Korea and performed other classified assignments at the Pentagon and here at Camp Smith.

From his own writings of the Russia experience, Miller recalled an escorted stop at Alma-Ata, located at the base of the Tian Shan mountains, where they were guarded by Soviet officers. “We were permitted to hike up a gorgeous valley where we saw a train of camels, one of whom turned an evil eye and spat on me,” he wrote. “It probably took offense at my bushy red mustache.”

Miller donated his body to the UH medical school, and his inurnment will take place in 2015 at Punchbowl cemetery. His family requests that friends remember him by enjoying and cultivating classical music and supporting hospice care.