Miller is General Counsel for the Central Arizona Project in Phoenix. He was born in Phoenix in 1948. His paternal grandparents were Lillie Jane and Rollie Miller, who lived and worked at the Canyon in the early 1900s.
Presentation Abstract...
The Miller Family at the Grand Canyon – A Personal History:
Miller's presentation will recount their family history at the Canyon and will be illustrated with a number of family photographs and other memorabilia of their years at the Canyon.
Doug's father, Harold Kirby Miller, was born on November 9, 1912, to Lillie Jane Woodrome and Rollie Miller. Doug's grandfather was the first station agent for the Santa Fe Railway at the Grand Canyon. His grandmother was the ticket agent. His grandparents lived in the upper story of the 2-story railway station, just down the hill from the El Tovar Hotel. The story of his family is that his grandmother chose the design of the upstairs living quarters of the railway station. His brother remembers his grandmother telling us that she and Rollie lived in a tent for some 6 to 9 months before the station was finished.
Doug's mother tells him that, just before his father was born, his grandfather put his grandmother on the train to Missouri, where her mother lived, so the baby could be born there. His father's birthplace is listed as Clinton, Missouri, but mom says he was also regarded as having been born in Arizona. Doug's family maintains that his father was the first white child "born" at the Grand Canyon.
For as long as he can remember, Doug's family has told this story; his grandmother telling it to him when he was very young. He has pictures of his paternal grandfather sitting on a railroad trestle near Ask Fork, of the newly built 2-story train station at the Grand Cañon (as it was then called), of his grandmother on a mule trip into the Canyon, and of his grandparents standing near the Canyon rim. The picture of the mule trip is dated June 29, 1909, the one of the train station dated July 3, 1910. Doug's mother says that Rollie was the Santa Fe agent at Ash Fork for awhile, and that his grandmother worked there as a Harvey Girl. They may have met there, and they were married shortly thereafter on March 4, 1908. They apparently moved to the Grand Canyon after they were married, in 1908 or 1909.