He would never have anything be about himself – that’s not in the character of Robert E. “Bob” Miller. But when the idea of turning his birthday celebration into a charitable fundraiser for the project closest to his heart was pitched to him, he gave in.
The April Designer Showhouse Ball honoring Miller’s 90th birthday will be held April 4 at the Fort Smith Convention Center.
For 40 years, the self-made oil & gas driller has championed Fort Smith’s Community Rescue Mission, a residential shelter and a hand-up for people in need. He founded the mission in 1980, after feeling a calling from God and praying for help to make it real.
Miller was only 50 when he was approached by a major investor who wanted to buy his thriving company, Miller Drilling. He had never thought of selling, but was pursued and, eventually, persuaded. He stayed on for a short time, through the transition to its new management.
Retirement had been unforseen, not even contemplated by Miller, who had worked exceptionally hard in the risk-laden energy industry since buying his first rig, on credit, at the age of 27.
“One month after I sold my company, I woke up in the night and I could hear sleet against the side of the house and I was so thankful I had a good, warm place,” Miller recalled. “Then, I had the thought, ‘What about people who don’t have a warm place to sleep tonight?’ I said to the Lord, ‘Are you trying to tell me to start a mission? And if you are, you have to show me where you want it and you have to give me somebody to run it.’”
Sound like a pretty direct prayer? It was.
In a biography published last year, Tailwind, The Robert E. Miller Story, Miller told writers Jennifer Tyler and Nicholas Younes why he came to have such trust that a divine reply would come.
Miller believes he has experienced three miracles, help sent by God when he was in a hopeless situation. As a young man, four hard-working years into owning a Texas drilling operation, he took on a job that literally hit rock bottom – a rock layer so hard that his drill struggled to bite through and which might break off the shaft and bit underground.
Miller had contrived a resourceful solution by adding the only heavy weight available to leverage the drill – his Chevy truck. It was just enough weight to keep the drill bit whirring through the night. Lubricating mud had kept circulating, somehow, to bring up the rock chips chewed by the drill. After barely whipping that threat, Miller was beyond exhaustion, resting for a few moments, when a roughneck woke him to say that one of the two engines that powered the drilling was completely broken.
Miller recalled in the book he felt physically crushed. Hardly able to form a thought, he slipped a little New Testament from his glove box and walked up a hill, away from the under-powered, doomed rig.
Frustrated and facing financial ruin of his small operation that was barely getting by, Miller began “pouring out his heart and soul” to God, he said, going over all of his problems, asking for answers. But none came.
As the sun rose, he took the little New Testament out of his pocket. It fell open to the fifth chapter of Romans, where he read this verse: “Rejoice in your suffering knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope will not disappoint us for God’s love has been poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit that has been given to you.”
He experienced a revelation, Miller said. He only had been telling God his problems. He realized he had been too proud to ask for plain old help, he said in the book. Now, he did humbly ask and began to feel uplifted. He knew he was no longer trying to do it alone. “Nothing had changed, and that crankshaft was still as broken as ever, but I knew it would be all right, now that I was asking God for help – real help!”
He told his crew to try to keep drilling and, filled with hope, drove to Abilene to find an engine. Miracle 2 was when an equipment dealer financed a used engine that had just become available. Miracle 3 was finishing that well two days under the deadline, earning a bonus that paid exactly the cost of the replacement engine, he said.
It was a turning point for his business. He still faced difficulties and rig breakdowns in that tough industry, but his business inched into the black. He knew he would be able to make payroll for the workers he cared so much about and support his own family. He was, and remains, grateful.
His reputation for bringing in wells on time at the lowest price put him in place, in 1961, to move his operation to Arkansas with a friend from Wichita Falls, Steve Gose. For the next two decades, he worked “like a rented mule,” as he said, drilling for natural gas in the Arkoma Basin. He purchased more used rigs and, proudly, ordered an entirely new rig built.
So, when Miller asked God to show him the place for a mission and give him a person to run it, he had faith he would receive help. And he did. Only a week later, he drove past a church for sale on Third Street. The late Jon Grimm and his wife, Sam, joined with Miller as the mission's operators. Within a year, Community Rescue Mission was serving people who were homeless or in crisis.
From that time on, the mission’s property, buildings and services had to be enlarged steadily to provide more and better living space, a chapel without leaks, a new kitchen and dining hall and a secure campus.
All the way, Miller maintains, God sent help in the form of donors and good leaders to operate the mission and serve on its board. He continues to use the resourcefulness he was forced to learn in the oilfield, wasting little and using every dollar most effectively.
Miller shows his gratitude to God in his service to others
The Millers embraced Fort Smith. Bob and Joan and their children, Mike and Marcia, made friends and grew a deep bond with their church family at First United Methodist Church.
Bob’s first love, Joan, had daringly plunged from a comfortable life in Wichita Falls, Texas, society to elope with him when he was still a college student, in 1950. The couple started out in life by trying to operate two hot, dusty cattle-ranching ventures.
She was the at-home parent while Bob worked long, erratic hours to build his early drilling venture, with only more of the same as his rig count shot sky-high in Arkansas.
In 1955, “Joanie” had been the conduit through which Miller first heard evangelist E. Stanley Jones, who led him to a deep personal faith. He became a lifetime teacher.
She saw one of her own philanthropic projects open its doors in 2000 – the Miller Branch of the Fort Smith Public Library, for which the Millers had been leading donors. But just before their 53rd anniversary, Joan died at the age of 71.
Bob considers himself blessed again with a loving marriage. After knowing one another as married couples for many years of friendship and attending the same church, Bob Miller and Nadine Hardin decided to marry. Surprising their church family, they simply announced at the end of a Sunday service that anyone who wanted to witness their vows was invited to remain seated. In this understated way, they united, each with respect and affection for the other’s late spouse and children.
In his biography, Miller said, “Nadine has made my life happier than I ever thought it could be.” In person, their bond is easy to see. While he has a serene, quiet smile, Nadine is lively and humorous, adding effervescent bubbles to his “still waters.”’
Both are in good health and they enjoy traveling, most recently to Israel.
Only Nadine could have convinced her modest husband to let his birthday be celebrated as a benefit. She has a formidable record of fund-raising and giving, herself, for a myriad of local causes and non-profits.
She winks and says, “I think he may even enjoy it a little.”
The Celebration: Everyone is going to have a ball!
Earl Douglas is producing Bob Miller’s 90th Birthday as his fourth April Designer Showhouse Ball. The experienced benefit event producer first worked with Nadine Hardin Miller in 2010 to introduce his style of Designer Showhouse charitable events for the benefit of Fort Smith Public Schools.
Nadine gave Douglas use of the Free Ferry Circle home she had shared with her late husband, Hugh Hardin. Douglas selected a slate of talented local interior designers to decorate each room of the house with their own style in color, furnishings, window treatment and art. Public tickets sales to tour the home yielded their proceeds to the Fort Smith Public School Foundation.
Two years later, he produced an April Designer Showhouse on Berry Hill Drive at the home of the late A.Y. Berry Jr. and Frances “Chee” Berry, successfully benefiting Project Compassion.
His most recent showhouse, in 2017, was a large Garrison Avenue apartment, the home of Susan and Mark Hooks. Tours and a ball raised funds for the STEPS Family Resource Center.
Each of his April Designer Showhouse events included banquets, but the April 4 Bob Miller birthday celebration will bring design right into the ballroom in vignettes staged by select exhibitors. Guests will see exhibits by the Ingrid Gipson Sculpture Studio & Gallery, Interior design by Mindy Seubold, Aariah Sol Glass Design art glass by Aaron and Mariah Newman and Interior design by Crystal White featuring the tile, glass and floor covering of Allison Flooring Sales Co. Earl Douglas will also show a vignette of his own interior design work.
Guests also will be served an elegant, plated dinner prepared by 21 West End, with a Greek garden salad, entree of Calvados Poulet Roulade with apple brandy, cornbread stuffing, apple chutney, calvados cream, quinoa and primavera vegetables, with a birthday cake of lemon cream and blueberry compote. A selection of wines will be served.
During the evening, guests may bid to win private, catered dinner parties. Hosts donating their homes for the parties are Robert A. Young III and Mary Carleton Young with catering by Stonehouse at Chaffee Crossing; Benny and Landy Westphal, Taliano’s; the Millers, 21 West End; Phil and Kim White, The Rialto, and The Barn by Two Brothers, with Neumeier’s Rib Room.
A celebrity auction at the ball will feature bidding for a commissioned portrait to be painted by artist Jim Horne of Fort Smith. Horne’s new portraits of Bob and Nadine Miller will be unveiled that night. An original sculpture by artist Ingrid Gipson also is an auction prize. Aariah Sol Glass Design gave an original pendant and earrings set.
From Douglas’ time spent working with fashion designer Edith Head and film producer/director Alfred Hitchcock, he has contributed celebrity items from his personal collection such as cuff links that belonged to Frank Sinatra, earrings from Edith Head and paintings by John Wayne and Mary Tyler Moore. From Universal Travel, six travel packages will be auctioned, three domestic and three foreign.
Tickets, $100 per person or $1,000 for tables of 10, may be reserved at 479-226-9530. To order by mail, make check payable to Community Rescue Mission, P.O. Box 607, Fort Smith, AR 72902.
