Miller brothers behind law firm, foundation
Burkett and Vaughn Miller were catalysts for the growth of the law firm which today is Miller & Martin. While brothers, their contributions were distinctly different.
Their father, White Miller, cut his teeth on a landmark Chattanooga case, U.S. vs Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola, the first test of the law creating the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The first commissioner of the FDA, Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemist, waged war against caffeine and targeted an emerging popular drink, Coca-Cola.
In October 1908, the federal government seized 40 barrels and 20 kegs of Coca-Cola being shipped from Atlanta to Chattanooga. The FDA alleged that the caffeine in Coca-Cola was a “poisonous ingredient.”
The trial was unlike any before seen in Chattanooga, if not the South. Physicians, chemists, pharmacologists and governmental directors, all with prestigious degrees from leading universities, descended upon Chattanooga to testify for or against Coca-Cola.
The trial cost in excess of $200,000, a staggering amount, and lasted a month. The FDA lost at trial on a directed verdict and also the appeal. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately overturned the verdict, remanded the case for trial, and the parties settled with Coca-Cola, agreeing to reduce its caffeine levels by half.
The trial enabled White Miller to work with urbane, sophisticated men from around the nation, who advocated with civility the role of law and regulation in society.
During the case, Miller suffered the shock of his father being viciously murdered by Miller’s own brother over an alleged theft by a farm tenant, who in turn coerced Miller’s brother to ambush and bludgeon their father.
Against this brutal backdrop, Miller longed for himself and Chattanooga a departure from the coarse meanness which he felt existed in his community. Miller resolved that his sons would receive enlightened educations supportive of a progressive society.
The elder son, Burkett, initially academically indifferent, graduated from McCallie (McCallie’s primary campus road bears his name), Sewanee and University of Virginia Law School. Burkett involved himself in the Chattanooga business community, and demonstrated a keen financial acumen.
He developed a downtown building (now Market Court), and purchased yachts from which he sport fished in the Florida Keys with wealthy friends such as R.J. Reynolds.
He could have lived frivolously, but he chose to establish a foundation (Tonya), which awarded more than $40 million to philanthropic causes such as Erlanger’s Miller Eye Center in honor of his legally blind wife, the Tivoli, Coolidge Park, Renaissance Park, Hitching Visitors Center and the Tennessee Riverwalk.
He endowed chairs, lectures and internships at Sewanee and the University of Chattanooga, to which he also donated the Chancellor’s residence on Lookout Mountain.
He believed a strong city core was essential to a great community, and established Miller Park (his foundation Tonya later funded Miller Plaza), which, in the words of Mayor Robert Kirk Walker was “like a rock thrown into a pond that rippled throughout the community.”
However, the crowning jewel of Burkett’s legacy may be The Miller Center, which he established at his law school alma mater, and which fulfilled Burkett’s vision of a non-partisan institution where leaders, scholars and the public could work toward consensus solutions.
The Center now has an international reach, and also serves as the official repository for the White House Oval Office voice recordings, including those that played a central role in President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
Burkett’s brother, Vaughn, also graduated from McCallie then Yale University, where he befriended budding composer Cole Porter. Vaughn even tried his hand at songwriting. One of his songs, “Musical Jones,” gained national fame. Cole Porter and Vaughn remained lifelong friends.
Vaughn entered Harvard Law School where he was appointed by future Justice Felix Frankfurter to serve as Oliver Wendell Holmes’ law clerk during the 1917-18 United States Supreme Court term.
Because there was no separate Supreme Court building, Vaughn frequently worked from Holmes’ residence, and was assigned by Holmes to read a broad range of literary works, from Shakespeare to Lester Frank Ward’s “Dynamic Sociology. “
Vaughn dined frequently with Holmes and his wife, and Holmes instilled in him a vision of the role of law in society. Vaughn brought that vision to the practice of law in Chattanooga.
The legacy of the Miller brothers in our community and nationally was profound and enduring.