RIP Tom Miller

[AlpineK]

I just received the news Tom Miller passed away on Monday.

 

Tom was a well known Pacific Northwest mountaineer. He wrote about climbing and took many photographs of the North Cascades.

 

Tom played an important role in the establishment of the North Cascades National Park. He provided his book of photographs to Senators Jackson and Magnuson along with Governor Evans. At the time few people knew what was in their backyard. His book provided photos that swayed votes for the park.

 

My father new him, and I remember talking to him about climbing over the years. He was a fantastic guy and good climber. Tom is survived by his wife Nancy and two children.

Edited March 23, 2011 by Feck

[AlpineK]

Here's an article from Alpenglow

http://www.alpenglow.org/climbing/ptarmigan-1953/index.html

 

[curtveld]

His amazing B&W photos definitely opened my eyes.

 

When about 10, I was poking around the Eugene Public Library and came across his classic 'The North Cascades'. I told myself: "Man...when I grow up, I'm going to go explore THIS place!"

[John_Scurlock]

Tom's book, 'The North Cascades', had a monumental impact on the eventual establishment of North Cascades National Park. As poor graduate students in Corvallis in the late 1970s, I remember how we agonized over the cost to purchase the one copy available there in an outdoor equipment store; we would check every so often to see that they still had it while we saved our precious coin. It's one of the great treasures on my bookshelf still. That book was one of the reasons I came to live in the Skagit, and I know I'm not alone. Kelly Bush has related to me essentially the same story of its influence on her, for example. Truly, the passing of a giant.

[AlpineK]

[Tyson.g]

Well said.

 

I found a copy second hand well before I had ever tied in to a rope.

I used to look at those photos and dream of what it would be like to climb such mountains.

The book still holds a place that is special to me in my imagination and my collection.

 

 

RIP Mr. Miller

[Lowell_Skoog]

Mac Bates wrote a nice sketch of Tom Miller for his interview in Cascade Voices.

 

Cliff [Leight] and I are lost and a little bit late for our interview with Tom Miller. I am driving slowly peering at house numbers, but Cliff isn't looking. He is fidgeting with his camera and wondering aloud how he will ever find a copy of The North Cascades. This book was published in 1964 to publicize the fight to create the North Cascades Park. Miller's distinctive black-and-white photos of the North Cascades were the centerpiece of the book which has become a Northwest classic, and hard to find. Cliff is attempting to lure me into an elaborate book heist when I pull into Miller's driveway. Unlike color photos which tend to soften the North Cascades, Miller's black-and-white photos get to the essence of the rugged range: rock and snow, jagged ridgelines against billowing clouds, cold, wild and off the map.

 

Black-and-white photography remained a passion but never became a profession for Miller as it did for Bob and Ira Spring. The same was true for his climbing. Miller jokingly refers to himself as a second-rate regional climber, but despite his protestations, he has some fine climbs to his credit: a first ascent of Mount Cook in Alaska, the second Ptarmigan Traverse and new routes on Formidable, Johannesburg and Torment. Miller was invited on the 1956 International Everest Expedition, but he reluctantly turned down the invitation. "At the time, I had real mixed feelings about going. I wasn't confident about what I wanted to be, an engineer or climber." A vice president in Boeing's aerospace and electronics division, Miller decided to confine his climbing to the Northwest.

 

Miller was a member of the committee which created Mountaineering, Freedom of the Hills. His future wife, Nancy, was also on that committee. She had grown up in a mountaineering family. Her father was Burge Bickford, a past president of the Mountaineers. Nancy, a lawyer, was the first woman to climb the north peak of Index, Forbidden, and Formidable. The Millers still climb, although they refer to it more as scrambling.

 

Tom and Nancy live in North Seattle along the shores of Lake Washington. The interview takes place in their living room. Tom is friendly, a bit reserved, but possesses a self deprecating sense of humor. He speaks quickly in clipped sentences. Nancy is a bit more relaxed, her pleasant voice has an almost girlish quality to it. As afternoon shadows begin to darken the room, Cliff gets Tom to show us some of his black-and-white photos. I notice a copy of The North Cascades on the bookshelf across the room. So does Cliff. He gives me a conspiratorial smile, but when we leave the Millers, the book is still on the shelf and Cliff is still looking.

 

When I started climbing after I graduated from high school in the mid-1970s, my friend Gary Brill had a copy of The North Cascades that I coveted endlessly. When my wife and I married in the early 1980s, two friends gave us a copy of Tom Miller's book as a wedding present. To this day, it's the only wedding present that I can still remember (and find at a moment's notice). Together with Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, Tom's book (and his work with Harvey Manning on the Mountaineers Literary Committee) gave birth to The Mountaineers Books.

 

About a decade ago I had the privilege of getting to know Tom Miller when I joined the Mountaineers History Committee. Tom was secretary of committee at that time. Having the opportunity to chat with Tom every other month at the History Committee's meetings was a huge incentive for me to become involved with the committee. Eventually I got up the nerve to ask him to sign my book.

 

In 2003, I got the idea of commemorating the 50th anniversary of Tom's 1953 Ptarmigan Traverse. (Tom's trip and photos, reproduced in The North Cascades, were without a doubt what put the Ptarmigan Traverse on the world mountaineering map.) Tom introduced me to his son Brian and I invited Brian on the trip, documented in the following story:

 

http://alpenglow.org/climbing/ptarmigan-1953/index.html

 

Brian later had a serious accident on Forbidden Peak which he wrote about in the Seattle Weekly, where he was a staff writer. Brian's story pays wonderful tribute to his parents, Tom and Nancy:

 

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2005-02-02/news/down-from-the-mountain/

 

In recent years, Tom stepped down from the History Committee due to health problems. We kept in touch occasionally, but I missed those regular chats. I knew he was dealing with serious health issues, so I guess I wasn't too surprised at the news of his death. But I'm very saddened. He was one of those people that personified Northwest mountaineering for me when I was younger. Competent, unassuming, with tremendous accomplishments in his outdoor life, family life, and work life, he's the kind of mountaineer I've always looked up to.

 

My condolences to his family and his many friends.

 

[Lowell_Skoog]

A paid notice for Tom Miller is in today's Seattle Times:

 

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=thomas-w-miller&pid=149768188

 

Thomas W. MILLER Born 8/12/1932, Hibbing, Minnesota Died 3/21/2011, Seattle, Washington. Tom is survived by wife Nancy Bickford Miller, children Brian Miller and Heather (Teresa) Miller, all of Seattle, and sister Kay Jones of San Antonio. Tom and Nancy celebrated their 50- year anniversary in February 2010. Raised in Seattle, Tom graduated from Franklin High School,the University of Washington (mechanical engineering, 1954), the California Institute of Technology (M.S. structural dynamics, 1957), and attended Columbia University's Executive Program in Business Administration in the summer of 1981. In his nearly 40 years at the Boeing Company, Tom worked as a chief engineer or project manager on the Jetfoil, Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), Peacekeeper (MX), Airborne Optical Adjunct (AOA), and SRAM programs.He retired as an Aerospace vice president in 1990. Mountain climbing, skiing, hiking, and photography were an important part of Tom's life, which included trips to Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Europe, India, and New Zealand. Among his notable climbs were first ascents of Johannesberg's Northeast Buttress route (North Cascades, 1949), and Mt. Cook (Alaska, 1953). His book The North Cascades, published by the Mountaineers in 1964, was a factor in establishing North Cascades National Park. Tom and Nancy served on the original editorial committee for Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, first published by The Mountaineers in 1960 and now in its 8th edition. Tom also provided editorial and design assistance for The Mountaineers Literary Fund Committee. He served as executive editor for 100 Hikes in Western Washington (1966). This led to a series of very popular Mountaineers guidebooks. He designed and chose the photographs for The Alpine Lakes (1971), which helped establish the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. No services will be held. Memorials can be sent to The Mountaineers (mountaineers.org) or Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (fhcrc.org).

Published in The Seattle Times from March 29 to April 3, 2011

 

I had no idea Tom was involved in such prominent projects at Boeing.

 

Boeing jetfoil:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_929

 

Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-86_ALCM

 

Peacekeeper (MX):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-118_Peacekeeper

 

Airborne Optical Adjunct (AOA):

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/aoa.htm

 

Short-Range Attack Missile (SRAM):

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-69.html

 

According to the obituary, Tom was executive editor for the first 100 Hikes book published by the Mountaineers. So he played a key role in starting that series.

 

Of course, he never mentioned any of this.