Ford Miller Passing

[cguthrie]

Many of you from the East and Midwest met Ford when he crewed for me. He died this past Thursday after a brief fight with cancer.

I met Ford my first year at CSA in 1979. He and Larry Dodd were co-chairing the first rebuild of the docks. I found out quickly there was Ford's way of doing things and then there was everybody else's way. I also found out that his way was well thought out, there was a plan for carrying it through and over the years that it usually was the most logical and efficient way of getting the project done.
He never tired of answering this newbie's questions and as I started to crew and sail with him I came to understand how well versed he was in the art of sailing.
I learned that Ford grew up sailing with his dad in E. St. Louis at what would become Grand Marais State Park, now Frank Holten Park. Like many other parent/child sailing combinations, Ford preferred crewing for other skipper's more than for his dad. I heard stories about how changes in the levee district caused the lakes to silt in and the fate of the swimming pool open for only one day. This was the prelude for the club moving to Valley. He would also hitch his canoe up behind his bicycle and tow it from where he lived with his mother in St. Louis to the lakes in E. St. Louis to paddle around for a relaxing afternoon. He would also ride his bike from St. Louis to Belleville where his dad managed the Western Auto store; hanging around until closing time when the bike would be put in the trunk of the car, fresh doughnuts would acquired and eaten on the ride home.
He graduated from Souldan High School which by the time I knew about it was an all black school in St. Louis. After high school he went to work for McDonnell Aircraft on the assembly line. He served in the army as part of an intelligence group and was stationed in Europe during the Soviet/Hungarian unrest where their tanks and ours would run up and down the border each trying to intimidate the other. His unit had two claims to fame. It included both Elvis and the cook who served as Eisenhower's pastry chef during WWII. Ford talked much more about the food than Elvis. After the army he went back to McDonnell which eventually added Douglas and was sold to Boeing. He went to school nights to get his flight mechanics license and a degree in engineering. When McDonnell gave him a lay off notice which also affected many other CSA sailors, he first scrambled around trying to land other jobs within the company, consider a move to Messerschmidt in Germany and finally acquiesced to retirement when he found out what the dollar amount would be.
And food was the subject of many of our activities. We had breakfast together most every Saturday morning where we would discuss world events, investments, religion, history both modern and ancient and anything else that came to mind. When we traveled to regattas together I never had to worry about where to find coffee in the morning. Ford would have that scoped out and there'd be a cup waiting on the night stand when I awoke.
He preferred to crew more than skipper and he was good well trained crew that made my job at the tiller easier. Post race discussions were always thorough and detailed as we went over every aspect of what happen and what we could do better. There was never any blame about who did what wrong, it was always focused on how can we make it better.
We eventually became co-chair of the buildings committee where he was the administrator and I the tradesman. I'm gonna miss his organization of what needs to be done and the book-keeping of who worked how many hours on each project. We continued our collaborations when my wife and I moved from our big old house in downtown Belleville to a slightly smaller house on the edge of town. On the day we moved in the people across the street were putting up a property for sale sign. Ford walked over and after a short conversation the sign came down and he built first a shed for us to work on boats and other things together and then a beautiful house for he and Marcia. The shed still has boats in it and in fact just this morning I finished repairing the damage to his boat from a broken keel cable from Adult Sail Camp. After I finish cleaning up his boat it will be sold and the proceeds given to Junior Sailing.
For 30 years he was my friend and mentor, confidant and cohort and he will be sorely missed.

Cal Guthrie

[TomD]

A great tribute for a friend. Sorry for your loss.