Community award thanks Chris Miller Community award thanks Chris Miller (November 26, 2004)

by Jeb Bing

I n choosing local Realtor Chris Miller as the recipient of its 2004 Individual Community Service Award, the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce has recognized one of California's most widely known spokesmen and activists for organizations and efforts that support local troops in the fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. A retired Lieutenant Colonel and commercial airline pilot, who served in Vietnam in the 1960s, Miller meets regularly with the Pleasanton Military Families organization that offers emotional and financial support to spouses who have suddenly become single parents when their husbands or wives, who are in the military reserves or National Guard, have been called to active duty since the military buildup following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Many have been unprepared to carry on, paying mortgages and other expenses and caring for young children by themselves, speaking with their spouses only occasionally from the war zones and making do on significantly reduced income as their regular jobs are put on hold.

Chamber Chairman Steve Clarkson, who will present Miller with the prestigious annual award at a community luncheon Dec. 7, which also is the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, cites Miller's continuing efforts to keep the names of Pleasanton troops prominently displayed so that we don't forget who and where they are. Soon after 9/11, Miller won permission from city officials and the Pleasanton Downtown Association to start posting yellow ribbons on Main Street light posts. Today, they cover the street from Old Bernal to the Main Street bridge, and are often the first stop returning troops make when they have a few weeks leave to come back home. Because of Miller, downtown shoppers and diners are often seen walking the street to read the names of sons and daughters of neighbors they know.

As the Chamber recognition notes, Miller led a similar effort in the 1990s during Operation Desert Storm, and he was the principal organizer of a Tri-Valley parade through Hacienda Business Park to honor the men and women who fought in that excursion when they returned home. As a Realtor with Re-Max Real Estate, Miller has also seen the hardships of longtime residents who can no longer afford steep mortgage payments when one of the two-parent workers' paychecks from the private sector is replaced by one that's less than half for military service. Quietly and without fanfare, Miller, with the support of other military families in town, will provide support through visits and gifts to those in need.

An active member of the Chamber and the PDA, Miller also wears his patriotism and sometimes his Republican Party politics on his sleeve, joining flag-wavers at rallies at Hopyard Road and Valley Avenue and occasionally even wearing red, white and blue shirts at Friday Night Concerts in the Park, Rotary Club fundraisers and community service programs and at Amador Valley High football games, where he has had almost perfect attendance. He's also a frequent visitor to the offices of the Pleasanton Weekly, where we work together to update our address lists of the scores of local men and women who are in Iraq and Afghanistan to whom we send the newspaper free of charge each week.

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