Obituary of Rev. Dean Miller

The Rev. Dean Miller, PhD of McGraw, New York, went to God on February 17, 2025 in
Sarasota, Florida. He is predeceased by his wife Barbara, his parents, his brother, and a niece
and a nephew, and survived by his daughter Lee of McGraw, his sister Eileen of the Niagara
Falls area, two favorite nieces, and plenty of nephews and cousins in the Western U.S.
Dean’s family originated out West and migrated in reverse, coming East during the Great
Depression for work, with Dean born en route. At the young age of 16, Dean earned a full merit
scholarship to the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, graduating at age 20 with a degree in
chemical engineering. Upon graduating, he enlisted the army, where the government sent him to
Nevada to test atomic bombs, given his chemical engineering background. Dean may have been
one of the last living Americans to witness an actual atomic blast, and may have been the only
living veteran actually in the blast zone. Unhappy at the prospect of atomic bombs, he left
chemical engineering and entered a theological seminary in New York, where he learned Greek
and Hebrew and earned a doctorate in divinity. His first church was in Baltimore, where he
spoke out vocally, and in letters to the editor, against segregation (the clergy in Baltimore were
divided on the issue, with some actually supporting segregation), in particular the banning of
Black people from an amusement park in Maryland. He marched with Martin Luther King Jr. on
Washington and was present at the famous I Have A Dream Speech.
His outspoken position resulted in the end of his ministry in Maryland, and he came to
New York where he became a part-time minister at the McGraw Presbyterian church while
attending school at Syracuse University where he earned a PhD in biopsychology. For many
years, he engaged in heart research (and was the first to quantify the effect of stress on the heart)
and then cancer research, before taking a job at the Syracuse Developmental Center as a State
psychologist, where he also designed adaptive equipment for the clients. Interested in passive
energy systems, Dean had a solar electric company in the 1970s, before its time, and designed a
hydroelectric system for a client in Pennsylvania. But nothing rivaled his passion for nature:
Dean was an avid long-distance swimmer (swimming one-two miles across the Finger Lakes and
back) and he enjoyed hiking and his dogs. He was the ski club chaperone for McGraw and
enjoyed skiing with the kids. He ran a Youth Group. He wrote poetry and books, and began the
McGraw Harvest Festival which, for decades, was the defining event in the village. He served
on the school board. He loved McGraw, its people and its history, and spent the best years of his
life there, which he termed the “golden age.” He was brave in his convictions.
In 2023, Dean was diagnosed with stage 3 bone marrow cancer and traveled to Sarasota,
Florida, with his daughter for treatment, going back and forth between Sarasota and McGraw for
the next two years. The treatment was successful, and his cancer decreased to stage 2 and was
expected to head into full remission. In Florida, he kept working on engineering designs, filling
entire pads of paper with his drawings, and he had even begun to jog again. However, in
November 2024, a foot infection led to sepsis, and Dean died in Sarasota from complications
related to liver failure. He was 94 years old, and sharp as a tack.
In the hospital, Dean was still designing equipment, (and had just come up with an idea
that combined solar with a Sterling engine), and holding long conversations about religion and
philosophy, imparting a lifetime of wisdom to his daughter. He died as he had lived life, with
wild enthusiasm, announcing, “I’m ready for life’s next great adventure! I always liked trying
new things.” Moments before he saw God, he was singing. He could not have had a more spectacular entry into his new beginning.