William M. Miller, 98, of Westport, Massachusetts, died on Sunday, March 24, 2013. Bill was the beloved husband of the late Mona (Atherton) Miller; son of the late William Miller and the late Edith (Gurney) Miller; and father of the late William Miller, Jr., the late Thomas Miller, and the late Margery Miller. He was predeceased by his sister Sarah Demoranville and his brothers Herbert, George, Walter, and Harold Miller.
Born in New Bedford in 1914, Bill lived there until moving to Dartmouth in 1956. In the 1930s, he graduated from N.B.H.S., worked at the Tabitha Inn in Fairhaven, and became an advertising salesperson for Proctor & Gamble. In the early 1940s, he owned a soda business, which he sold during WWII to do defense work at Revere Copper and Brass in New Bedford. From the late 1940s until his retirement in 1976, Bill was a self-employed contractor. He lived with his daughter Margery in New Bedford from 1997 until he moved to his daughter Susan’s home in Westport in 2011. Bill enjoyed spending time with family and friends, playing cards, doing jigsaw puzzles, gardening, and traveling to every state and many countries all over the world.
Bill was a member and past counselor of the United Commercial Travelers of New Bedford. He joined the Masons in 1966, was a member of Noquochoke Lodge, Westport, and affiliated with Abraham Howland Lodge, New Bedford. He was also a member of Scottish Rites, Aleppo Shrine, Wilmington, MA; Southeast Shriners of Massachusetts; and Rhode Island Shriners, participating in many parades as a cymbalist with the Shriners Oriental Band. He loved volunteering with his fellow Shriners by collecting donations for Shriners Hospitals at local supermarkets, providing holiday party gift bags for children at the Schwartz Center, and helping the Salvation Army during the Christmas season.
His survivors include his daughter Susan Smith and her husband George Smith of Westport; his daughter Dorothy Grosswendt of Dartmouth; his seven grandchildren Sandra, George, Jr., Renee, William IV, James, Eric, and Anne; his eleven great-grandchildren Leeanna, Nikki, George IV, Weston, Troy, Susan, K.C., Winter, Kelyanne, Allie, and Maggie; and his two great-great grandchildren Tesla and Amelia.
Services will be private.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Schwartz Center for Children, 1 Posa Place, Dartmouth, MA 02747.