Miller, Orloff W. Papers, 1943-2017

Orloff W. Miller was born on August 8, 1931 to Rev. Lawrence Miller and Alice Miller in Boston, M.A. He grew up in Ohio and attended Mount Union College, where he received his B.A. in 1954 and met his first wife Mary Jane Williams. They had two children, Orloff Garrick, born in 1956, and Tanya Jane, born in 1958. He received a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology in 1956. Miller worked for various churches around New England and Boston, including Harvard Junior Church and the Federated Church of Francestown, N.H. (Congregational), as well as churches around New Hampshire and East Harlem, N.Y. He converted from Methodist to Unitarian around 1959 and began working for the Unitarian Universalist Association at their offices in Boston, serving as Director of the Office of College Centers and as a Staff Advisor to Student Religious Liberals. In that role he traveled to many college campuses across the United States and Europe. While working for the UUA, Miller became involved with the Civil Rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and participated in protest marches, town meetings and gatherings in Mississippi as well as the march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Miller along with fellow Unitarian ministers, Clark Olsen and James Reeb, were injured in an attack by white men that gained nationwide attention. Reeb later died from his injuries.

Miller also served as the District Executive for the Mountain Desert District of the UUA. in Colorado from 1967 to 1971 and as Minister to the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Colorado Springs starting in 1968. Miller’s acts of civil disobedience continued there, including opposing the war in Vietnam, refusing to pay income taxes, and assisting war resisters. Miller was eventually forced to resign as Minister in 1972. He then went on to form the Pike’s Peak Center for Human Ecology, an organization that provided counseling and workshops on pregnancy, abortion, and sex education.

In 1973, Miller moved to San Luis Obispo, California, marrying his second wife in 1976. There he became a part-time cab driver and parish minister, and also served as the Social Services Coordinator for the City of San Luis Obispo. Miller traveled extensively, including visiting 22 islands in the South Pacific and Hawaii. He moved to San Francisco in 1979, where he continued cab driving while completing a doctorate at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in sexology. He did counseling with the American Humanist Association and eventually formed his own organization called Human Perspectives. From 1984 to 1989, Miller worked as an AIDS Crisis Minister by offering emotional support for hospice residents and volunteering with organizations like the Shanti Project, giving sermons and workshops. He worked ardently to convince the UUA to adjust their "About Your Sexuality" course and helped draft a Supplement to reflect the growing AIDS crisis.

Miller married his third wife Renate Bauer and moved to West Germany in 1989 where his third son, Glenn Erasmus was born. Though retired from active ministry in 1991, he attended the occasional speaking engagement or workshop as the Minister-at-Large for the European Unitarian Universalists. He died on July 1, 2015 at the age of 83.