FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Jack Miller was born in Torrington in 1937 to Roy and Agnes Miller. He worked part time in his father’s business Roy’s Cold Storage and with the town surveyor while attending Torrington High School. After high school he attended the University of Nebraska for a year followed by the University of Colorado where he earned a B.S. in Chemistry. He passed unexpectedly on May 24, 2022 at his home in Fairbanks, Alaska.
During his career, he worked for Dow Chemicals, The National Bureau of Standards, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Alaska Fairbanks from which he retired in 2005. His crowning achievement was work with Dr. Peter Gilman to create a state-of-the-art computer model of the sun.
Jack was a life-long learner. He was always taking a class at the university wherever he lived. Classes were generally in math, physics or computer science and an occasional guitar class. His office is crammed with technical books. And he read the New York Times Book Review from cover to cover and was generally conversant on almost any topic that arose. He loved cooking and baking bread and spent many hours trying to develop a computer program to “beat the odds” on football bets.
Jack is survived by his wife Barbara Horner-Miller of Fairbanks; his daughter, Diane Rierden of Arvada, Colorado and two grandchildren, Kevin Riedren and Shannon Rierden (Zack Fox) both of Denver, Colorado. He is also survived by many in-laws on his wife’s side. He was preceded in death by his parents, Roy and Agnes. He was loved and will be missed.
There was a tribute to Jack at the Chapel of Chimes Fairbanks on Thursday June 2, 2022.
