Leo A. Miller, 92

Leo A. Miller, 92, died peacefully Sept. 20, 2026, at a Coeur d’Alene assisted care center, just shy of his 93rd birthday. His family will observe a private service at a remote location in Alaska where Leo and his wife, Janice, will find their final resting place in a location frequented by them many times over.   

Leo was born to Albert and Pauline Miller on Sept. 23, 1933, into a farming family of seven boys and two girls in the Kickapoo Township of Tuttle, N.D. He was an enthusiastic player on the Tuttle High School basketball team and, along with his siblings, helped his mother and father with all the chores that early farm life demanded. Upon graduation, he found heavy labor work on the Garrison Dam project, where he carried and secured 2-inch rebar into the dam’s structural forms. He later moved on to more civil works projects with various contractors and firms.   

He settled in Dalton Gardens in 1956 with his wife, Janice, and began to raise a family of two boys and one girl, staying in this house until 2023. He and Janice enjoyed camping and traveling to their vacation home in Florence, Ariz., and often entertained guests and family there. Leo had dedicated time to the sport of trapshooting, spending many weekends volunteering services at the Coeur d'Alene Gun Club, where his two boys also worked. Later, he moved the family to Alaska in 1974 and worked there as a Construction Supervisor for the Anchorage Telephone Utility. He was involved in many major telephone system upgrades to handle the rapid influx of workers and families coming to Alaska for work on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. During this time, he developed a desire to learn to fly and, at the mature age of 57, earned his private pilot’s license and bought a plane. He loved to fly and spent many thrilling hours in the air, surveying the Alaskan frontier. Many friends and relatives got to enjoy his hobby as he loved to take folks up in this PA-12 from his strip just off the Kenai River. 

Janice, his dedicated wife of 64 years, passed on April 4, 2021. Leo is survived by his two sons and daughters-in-law: Brian and Tammy of Anchorage, Alaska, and Dusty and Sandy of Spokane, Wash.; and his daughter and son-in-law, Pam and Mike of Spokane, Wash. He currently has eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. He is survived by his brother, Duane Miller of Minot, N.D., and his sister and brother-in-law, Bernette and Alan Bowen of Aventura, Fla., as well as many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; sister Lorraine Hertz; and brothers Archie, Bruce, James, Dennis, and Donald.

Yates Funeral Home is entrusted with final arrangements.