Obituary of Kenneth Dexter Miller

Kenneth Dexter Miller, Jr., passed away peacefully at the age of 96 on September 8, 2018.Kenneth D. Miller, Jr., known as Dexter, was born in Yonkers, New York, on July 30, 1922, to the Reverend Kenneth Dexter Miller and Ethel Anderson Prince Miller. He attended Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, and graduated with highest honors from Princeton University in 1943 where he studied Aeronautical Engineering and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. While in college, he met Barbara Beranger through a classmate, and they fell in love and were married in April of 1943 in New York City. After joining the Navy, Mr. Miller served at the US Naval Research Laboratory where he was assigned to work on radar, then an emerging technology. He returned to Princeton after the war, and earned his M. S. in Aeronautical Engineering. He and his wife lived in Princeton, New Jersey, for 25 years, where they started their family. Mr. Miller began his career at M. W. Kellogg Co. principally designing and constructing fertilizer plants around the globe. In 1970, the family moved to Houston, Texas, with the relocation of the company headquarters. Later Mr. Miller worked well into his eighties as a consultant to engineering companies in the petroleum industry. After the loss of his wife in 2006, he moved into Trinity Terrace in Fort Worth, Texas, to be near his son and his family. There he joined the First Congregational Church where he was nurtured by their loving congregation. When he was no longer able to attend church, he enjoyed vesper services led by the Reverend Tricia Baldwin at Trinity Terrace.Mr. Miller had many lifelong interests. He and his wife filled their home with the sounds of classical music and had an extensive library of literature and history. An avid sailor, he raced small boats at the Carnegie Sailing Club in Princeton and in Maine, and crewed on larger boats for races in the Atlantic. He and his wife were dog lovers, and opened Qualine Kennels in Princeton where they raised and bred Cocker Spaniels for many years.He was an industrious man of great integrity and intelligence, but his legacy will be the quiet grace and kindness he showed to his family and those around him. He and his family shared decades of wonderful summers together in Stoneham, Maine. Memories made on the shores of Keewaydin Lake will be passed down for generations and live on in the hearts of his family.Mr. Miller was predeceased by his wife of 63 years, Barbara French Beranger Miller, and his daughter Heather.He is survived by his son, Timothy Dexter Miller and his wife, Mary Alice Williams of Fort Worth; daughters, Hope Miller Horn and her husband, Richard, of St Louis, MO, and Eve Miller Hoefle and her husband, Daniel, of Rye, NH; grandchildren, Alexandra Elizabeth Trkla of Denver, CO, Nicholas Thomas Trkla of Portland, ME, Zachary Charles Trkla and Jackson Dexter Trkla of Chicago, Illinois, Matthew Emerson Horn (Caitlin), Elise Miller Hoffman (Matt), and Samuel Anderson Horn of St. Louis, MO, Sarah Rachel Horn of Eugene, Oregon, and Claire Williams Miller of Raleigh, NC; sister, Elizabeth Miller Hiteshew of Santa Monica, CA; and two nieces, Sarah Hiteshew Wescott (Bud) and Elizabeth Hiteshew Olson (Ric).