Victor K. Miller

Victor K. Miller, retired superintendent of buildings and bridges for the E.J.&E. railroad, died Friday, April 17, at his home in Joliet. He was two months shy of his 99thbirthday.
He was born on June 9, 1921, in Keokuk, Iowa, son of Emil Miller, a railroad clerk, and his wife, Mary Renz Miller. A good athlete, he signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization after high school and was supposed to report for training camp, but the entry of America into World War II changed those plans.
Instead, he went to work for the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C, and drew war maps, including one of Tokyo. Later in the war, he joined the Navy and served on a convoy ship, among other duties,
At war’s end he was enrolled in an officer’s training program at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. After his discharge he attended Iowa State University, where he played on baseball and basketball teams before graduating in 1948 with a degree in architectural engineering.
He moved to Joliet to work for the E.J.&E., where one of his first jobs was supervising construction of the railroad’s new administration building on Walnut Street.
He supervised numerous construction projects during a three-decade career.Among his proudest achievement was a project to calculate the railroad’s actual costs of shipping steel and other materials around the Chicago area.
In 1953 he married June Morse, of Dwight, a nurse who worked across the street from the railroad at Silver Cross Hospital. He was a loving father to their five children, coaching their sports teams and attending school events.
His interest in schools led him to serve as a school board member, first for the former Cherry Hill School District and later for New Lenox School District 122.
He designed his home in Cherry Hill and served as general contractor for its construction, building major parts of it himself.
During a nearly 37-year retirement, he kept active with tasks around the house, occasional trips and golf, which was one of his passions. He played several times a week at Woodruff Golf Course and other Joliet-area courses, a pattern that continued into his 90s.
He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, Harley Miller; and a sister, Lucille Huiskamp, all of Keokuk. Survivors include his wife, June; sons Gregory Miller, of Longwood, Florida, Kurt (Mary) Miller, of Batavia, and Kevin (Miloslava) Miller, of Naperville; daughters Sue (Steve) Osaki, of Huntington Beach, California, and Diana (Tim) Reincke, of Huntley. He was the cherished grandfather of Benjamin (Chelsea) and Molly Miller; Shane, Reed and Madeleine Osaki; Magdalena and Daniel Miller; and Nathaniel, Evan and Derek Reincke; and great-grandfather to Alana Jefferson.
Victor and his wife were members of United Methodist Church of New Lenox.
Because of the coronavirus outbreak, a memorial service and burial at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery will be scheduled later.