Former Princeton Township Mayor Bernie Miller Dies at Age 95

Princeton, NJ – Bernard Miller, 95, a former mayor of Princeton Township and an elected official who also served on the consolidated Princeton Council, died August 24.

Miller, an aeronautical engineer who served in the Air Force and then worked for RCA Laboratories – and later Lockheed Martin -- in West Windsor, helping to advance NASA’s space exploration program, had a long history of civic engagement as both a volunteer and elected official.

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In the 1980s he served on Princeton Township Affordable Housing Board. He also chaired the Joint Princeton Cable TV Committee, which negotiated one of the early cable television arrangements. He later served on Consolidation Study Commission and Consolidation Transition Task Force.

He was first elected to Township Committee in 2002, and served as deputy mayor and then mayor. After consolidation, he was elected to the Council, serving as first Council president in the new consolidated government. He served on Council through 2017.

He was known as a strong-minded, independent public servant. In a Princeton magazine interview about a decade ago, one of his six children, Buddy Miller, a musician, was asked what he thought of his father running for reelection at the age of 84. “My dad is something else – still out there, causing trouble.”

He was also collegial. Miller and his wife, Ruth, were close friends of their counterparts in the Borough, then Mayor Marvin Reed and his wife, Ingrid.

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Sharing a passionate commitment to the well-being of the community and involvement in the political process, they also shared a love of New York City. For a number of years they shared a small apartment in Manhattan. They alternated weekends in the city since the apartment was not large enough to accommodate all four of them at the same time.

TAPinto Princeton columnist Pam Hersh, who profiled both the Reeds and the Millers at various times, reports that “all of their experiences together and apart made for some of the liveliest conversations in Princeton.” Miller's death came four weeks after that of Ingrid Reed.

The Miller family prepared the following obituary notice:

Bernard (Bernie) Paul Miller was born April 19, 1929, in Chelsea, MA, to Hyman and Rose Miller (Feldman). His father had served in the US Expeditionary Force in France in World War I, and as a Treasury Agent during prohibition. In 1938 the family moved to the Philadelphia, PA, area. Bernie graduated from Darby (PA) High School in 1945. As a child, he was interested in aircraft, aviation, and flight, and followed his interest as a career. He received his undergraduate degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He received a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. At Penn State, Bernie was Junior Class Secretary –Treasurer, Senior Class Vice President, Prior (President) of the Mu Lambda Chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu, and a Distinguished Military Cadet.

Upon graduation from Penn State, he was commissioned a 2nd Lt. In the USAF and entered active duty. In 1951 and 1952, he worked on advanced aircraft research and development at Wright Field, Dayton, OH and test programs at Edwards Air Force Base in CA. In 1954, he graduated with Distinction from the Engineering Postgraduate Program at the USAF Institute of Technology.

From 1954 to 1957, he taught thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD. In June 1957, three months before the launch of Sputnik, he joined the technical staff of the RCA Laboratories in Princeton, NJ, working on a satellite reconnaissance program called Janus for the US Army. The Janus program was subsequently transferred to NASA and became the US meteorological satellite program, TIROS.

With the establishment of the RCA Astro-Electronics Division in 1959, he became Group Leader and Project Manager for advanced military and civilian satellite programs.  In 1965, Bernie received the NASA Public Service Award for his leadership as Project Manager of the team that developed the Ranger satellite that successfully took the first high resolution television pictures of the moon and transmitted the pictures back to earth before the satellite was destroyed upon impact with the moon.

In 1973, he was a founder and subsequently CEO of ECON, Inc., a research and consulting company that specialized in the economics of advanced technologies. Upon retirement from ECON in 1985 he returned to RCA Astro Space as Manager, Advanced Programs and Business Development. A major focus of his work was the development of new and advanced commercial communication satellites.

Bernie retired in 1998 from Lockheed Martin International, a successor company to RCA Astro Space, as Senior Vice President for commercial programs in the Asia region. After retirement from Lockheed, he consulted for several US and international companies on the establishment of commercial communication satellite systems.

He continued his education while at RCA with graduate courses in Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University and graduate courses in business and public policy in a summer program at Cornell University.

Bernie believed in community service. As a volunteer, he served on the Princeton Township Housing Board, as Chair of the Princeton Cable TV Committee, and as treasurer of the Friends of the Princeton Public Library.

He was elected to Princeton Township Committee in 2002, and served as Committeeman, Deputy Mayor, and Mayor. He served on the commissions and task force that brought about the merger of Princeton Borough and Princeton Township in 2012 and served as a Councilman and first President of the Council for the new municipality of Princeton.

He was an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and member of the Old Guard of Princeton. He published extensively on the use of satellites for earth and ocean surveillance, and communications.

In 1973, Bernie met and married the love of his life, Ruth Louise Kasha (Whyl). When they met by chance in the spring of 1973, he immediately knew that she was very special, and would be the woman who would make his life complete. They were married in December, 1973, about six months after their first date.

He subsequently adopted Ruth’s two children, adding them to the four from his first marriage. Living in Hong Kong for three years, Bernie and Ruth enjoyed travelling throughout Asia. After Bernie retired from Lockheed in 1998 as Senior Vice President, Lockheed Martin International, they continued to travel to Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and Europe. Together they enjoyed music, theater and ballet, and the company of their children, grandchildren and of good friends.

Ruth was his de facto staff throughout his political and public life. She was his advisor on policy decisions, consultant on campaign strategy and advertisements, and editor for his written statements.

He was predeceased by his parents and brother David, and is survived by his wife of 50 years, Ruth Miller; his children Buddy Miller and his spouse Julie, Nina Miller, Dana Miller and her spouse Malcolm MacKenzie, Bob Miller and his spouse Deborah Eyde, Simon Miller and Toby Miller; his grandchildren Alasdair and Lachlan MacKenzie, Noah and Alden Miller and Sofia and Eden Miller.

Donations in his honor should be made to Friends of Princeton Public Library.

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