Remembering Marvin Gene Miller, 1948–2006, 20 years later

Marvin Miller was riding his bicycle when a driver hit and killed him 20 years ago today. His family is sharing this tribute in his enduring memory:

It’s hard to believe, but as of St. Patrick’s Day, it has been twenty years since Marvin Gene Miller was taken from his family and the West Seattle community far too soon. Marv died doing what he loved. While riding his bike with a friend near West Marginal and Highland Park Way on March 17, 2006, he was struck and killed by a street-racing teenager who intentionally drove onto the path.

Born in 1948, Marv was an Army kid who lived everywhere from Alaska to Italy during his childhood. He attended Eckstein Middle School and Nathan Hale High School for a time before graduating from Punahou on Oahu. An Eagle Scout and National Merit Scholar, he received a full ride to Michigan State University and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in math. He returned to settle in Seattle, where he married his wife, Sylvia.

Marv was an avid bicyclist who completed the STP twice with his daughter, Teresa, in two days and multiple other times with friends in one day. He also rode RAMROD several times and participated in Cascade Bicycle Club events around the region.

Marv died in the prime of his life, having retired just three years earlier from a more than thirty-year career as a software engineer at Boeing. In addition to enjoying travel, especially to Hawaii, he had a commitment to community service. Over the years, he contributed his time to Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops and helped multiple people get through math classes to earn degrees or GEDs. During his retirement, he volunteered at Denny Middle School. He also helped animals, including an abandoned, geriatric yellow lab he found on Alki and adopted, and he picked up litter wherever he went.

An accomplished genealogist who researched more than 30,000 of his daughter’s ancestors, Marv established a popular genealogy website via paper records and visits to libraries and cemeteries across the country, in a time before the conveniences of at-home DNA testing and easy clicks through Ancestry.com. His research provides the basis for many people’s knowledge of their family trees today. At the time of his death, he was also beginning to fulfill his lifelong dream of learning to play the saxophone.

The West Seattle Herald previously covered his death, and WSB posted a picture of the ghost bike that his son-in-law, Gregory (whom he never had the chance to meet), made in his memory in 2018.

Losing Marv leaves a hole that his family and friends continue to feel all these years later. We invite you to pitch in where he left off, by helping someone in need, leaving places better than you find them, or choosing to drive carefully in a rushed and demanding world. No appointment, text message, or moment of irritation on the road is worth preventing someone from getting home safely to the people who love them.

(WSB publishes West Seattle obituaries and memorial announcements by request, free of charge. Please email the text, and a photo if available, to westseattleblog@gmail.com)

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