|
John Miller, a pioneer in the world of aviation passed away on Sunday night at the age of 102. Here is an extract from the PoughkeepsieJournal.com.
Robin Moore remembers the last words his grandfather, John Miller, said to him Sunday night.
"I guess my flying days are over," recalled Moore, a LaGrange resident.
Miller,
a 102-year-old Town of Poughkeepsie resident, was pronounced dead at
Vassar Brothers Medical Center several hours later Monday morning,
marking the end of one of the most storied aviation careers in this
country's history. He was widowed and is survived by two daughters and
several grandchildren.
Miller's daughter, Trish Taylor, said he died from natural causes after spending two nights at the hospital.
"He
was aware that he wasn't what he used to be and it really annoyed him,"
said Taylor, a Town of Poughkeepsie resident. "He had a health fetish
and he always ate right. He never took prescription medication until
the very end."
"From Jennys to jets" was a term Miller often used
to describe his aviation career and it was accurate. Miller began
flying in 1924 when he was 18.
He caught the flying bug at a
young age when he watched aeronautical pioneer Glenn Hammond Curtiss
land his plane, made partially of bamboo, in a field near Miller's
Poughkeepsie home. Curtiss was on his way from Albany to New York City
to win a $10,000 prize.
Miller first got his hands on airplane at
17, when a barnstormer gave him a hand-me-down Curtiss Jenny aircraft,
a biplane designed by Glenn Curtiss. Miller fixed the plane and learned
about aeronautical principles by reading "Aerobatics" by Capt. Horatio
Barber.
Moore said his grandfather soon started a flying taxi service.
"He
became a commercial pilot on his second flight," Moore said. "Then his
father made him take some more lessons down the road, but he usually
left that part of the story out."
Miller eventually sold the Jenny and attended the Pratt Institute
for Mechanical Engineering, graduating in June 1927. During his stint
at Pratt, Miller acknowledged skipping class once in May 1927. He
skipped school so he could witness Charles Lindbergh take off from
Roosevelt Field in Long Island for his history-making, transatlantic
flight to Paris.
In 1931, Miller became one of the first people
to buy the revolutionary Pitcairn autogiro, the precursor to the
helicopter. Miller became the first man to fly cross-country in the
autogiro, to Amelia Earhart's dismay. Earhart had planned to become the
first person to make the trip.
Miller's career included stints as
a test pilot during Word War II, a commercial airline pilot and airmail
deliverer. Three of the airplanes Miller has flown are exhibited at the
National Air & Space Museum in Washington. Miller also is the first
pilot to land an aircraft - an autogiro - on the roof of a building.
"He
really was someone that a lot of pilots here looked up to," said John
Trosie, instructor and chairperson for Dutchess Community College
aviation program. "He was really a local legend and to have someone
like that here really made it special for us."
H.G. Frautschy,
executive director of the Milwaukee-based Experimental Aircraft
Association's Vintage Aircraft Association and editor of Vintage
Airplane magazine, said Miller's loss would be felt throughout the
aviation world.
"The fact that he lived so long and witnessed all
that he did is great, but he was literally in the middle of all that
history," Frautschy said. "You hate to speak in absolutes, but I think
he is the last of a generation."
Taylor said her family is planning a private memorial service and that Miller did not want a traditional funeral.
Instead, Miller's family is following through with his request to have his body donated to the Anatomy Gifts Registry.
"It was his way of being modest," Taylor said. "He wanted his body donated to science."
Reach Rasheed Oluwa at roluwa@poughkeepsiejournal.com or 845-437-4823.
|
