Born November 6, 1919, in Dean Lake, Minnesota, Lord served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1944 to 1945.

He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota from 1951 to 1952, returning to private practice from 1952 to 1954.

In his first landmark and historic decision in 1973, when the Reserve Mining Company's processing plant at Silver Bay, Minnesota, was dumping 47 tons of waste rock into Lake Superior every minute, Lord ultimately forced Reserve to stop dumping the pollutants, taconite tailings.

In the Reserve Mining decision, Lord said, "This court cannot honor profit over human life.

To settle seven lawsuits, he made Robins' top three executive sign a $4.6 million settlement agreement and personally held them liable.

His eldest daughter, Priscilla Lord, ran against satirist Al Franken in the Democratic Party primary in 2008 for the Senate seat held by Norm Coleman.

Miles' youngest daughter, Virginia, is a lawyer and real estate agent for Coldwell Banker Burnet in Wayzata, Minnesota.