At age two the family moved, by covered wagon, near Adrian, Missouri and established a farm under a Civil War land grant.

In 1888 when crops were destroyed by a hail storm, Miller, age 8, was allowed to work as a water boy on a Kansas City Southern Railway grading gang, peaking his interest in rail travel.

One such person was Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, who was experimenting with the development of an aircraft which he called an aerodrome.

Crucial to the expansion is finding a route suitable to a train at a reasonable cost to build, especially through the Rocky mountains.

His application to teach Civil Engineering at the University of Washington was accepted for the Fall of 1909, and he and Florence moved to Seattle.

About the same time William Boeing had a keen interest in aviation and started a company together with George Conrad Westervelt to produce his own airplanes.

At this time Miller was instructing civil engineering and was involved in several civil engineering projects around Seattle, including building the ship canal connecting Lake Washington to Puget Sound through the Ship Canal and Ballard locks, and surveying the Camp Lewis cantonment site.

When the wind tunnel project proposed by Boeing began, Miller was responsible for design and construction.

For their participation in the program the University offered an airplane structures class, taught by Miller, for the spring of 1917.

This promise was never fulfilled and Miller left in October 1919 after only two quarters, to accept a position as chief engineer for the American Aircraft Corporation.

Under his supervision the plant built five Boeing Model C aircraft per week for a Navy rush order.

[2] Miller returned to the University in January 1919 but resigned in October that year to accept a position as chief engineer for the American Aircraft Corporation of Port Angeles (no information of this company has been found).

In addition, they designed and built gliders, propellers, pontoons, and other aircraft parts and conducted a ground school for flying students.

"[2] In the same year he also built a practical monoplane with folding wings and with power applied to the wheels so it could maneuver on the ground as an automobile.

[2] In 1942, Miller applied for and was offered a position with Vega Aircraft Corporation, a part of Lockheed, in Burbank California.