Thursday, February 22, 2007 Older Editions

Adair Miller

Adair Miller, 94, a resident of South Main Street for nearly 60 years, died peacefully Feb. 10 in Berlin, Vt., where he and his wife, Judith, were spending the winter with family.

Born in Munich, Germany, in 1912 to Dr. and Mrs. Charles G. Miller of Southport, Conn., who often resided abroad prior to the Great War, Mr. Miller attended various boarding schools and then shipped out at age 21 as a cadet on a round-the-world voyage via Cape Horn on the Joseph Conrad, a three-masted, square-rigged sailing ship, which in 1934 was the last surviving frigate in the world.

The three-year voyage became the subject of the book The Cruise of the Conrad by her captain, noted adventurer Alan Villiers.

Mr. Miller's enchantment with Tahiti led to his leaving the ship for an extended stay ashore of many months.

Upon his return to New York, he put in a brief stint in investment banking, but soon turned to what became his greatest pleasure in life - aviation.

In 1941 he joined the US Army Ferry Command, for which he flew new aircraft to Canada for shipment to Britain at war.

In 1942 Mr. Miller signed on with TWA's Intercontinental Division, then operating under the US Air Transport Command, making regular scheduled overseas flights of four-engine DC-4 transports. While assigned to the South America Africa-Middle East route to India, Miller logged more than 140 trans-Atlantic crossings and more than 5,000 hours of four-engine time.

After the war, Miller continued his career with TWA, and in 1947 he transferred to TWA's newly expanded Boston domicile, eventually settling on South Main Street in Andover, where he and his wife Judith lived for the last 55 years.

Mr. Miller remained with TWA until retiring in 1972. By then thoroughly familiar with air transport and an experienced investor in the New England seafood business, after his retirement he launched a second career and joined Turner Fisheries of Boston as their West Coast representative.

His affable and relaxed personality gained him access to leading chefs in Southwest and West Coast cities, who eagerly added East Coast fish shipped fresh daily to their Hollywood, Las Vegas, and Sun Belt tables.

Throughout his life, Mr. Miller shared his second love - yachting - with family and friends on board his 35-foot wooden yawl, Mohegan II, which lay moored in front of his Eastern Point summer residence in Gloucester.

A 55-year member of the Eastern Point Yacht Club, he served many years as both governor and as fleet captain for the club. In later years as halyards became rough and bilges took on water, he turned to a lighter craft to squire his guests around, acquiring and restoring E.P. Williams' smart motor launch Timolin, reputed to be the first fiberglass motor vessel to cruise Gloucester Harbor some 50 years ago.

Under Mr. Miller's care, early each summer its original engine turned over and started with his press on the starter button.

Family members include his loving wife of 65 years, Judith, and three sons and daughters-in-law: Adair Jr. (Dusty) and Elise of Norwalk, Conn., Bryan and Patricia of Singapore, and Conrad and Marilyn of Berlin, Vt.; and four grandchildren.

The family plans to hold a memorial service later this year.