Harrisonburg man combines woodworking and anatomy
Retired professor uses new hobby to create puzzles
HARRISONBURG — Roman Miller said he expected to spend two years in Harrisonburg.
When he was offered an endowed professorship position in the biology department at Eastern Mennonite University, the Iowa native said he planned to try the job but move on within a few years.
“I (had) no desire to go to some little rinky-dink school,” Miller said.
Those two years turned into 31 — with Miller marrying for the first time in his early 40s and he and his wife buying property in the area. Then, they adopted two girls from an orphanage in Ukraine — sisters Zoya Miller and Katarina Miller — when they were 4 and 6.
Now a grandfather, Miller, professor emeritus of biology at EMU, draws on his background in the disciplines of physiology and biomedicine for a new hobby he discovered after moving to Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community in 2018.
Setting up at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market on Tuesdays, Miller brings unique wooden puzzles and toys — from beautifully detailed trucks to farm sets — naturally colored by the hues in the different types of wood. Of interest to both oddity-seekers and students, Miller’s anatomy puzzles are a unique offering that blends his love of woodworking and understanding the functions of organs in the human body.
“Anatomy more studies the detail of a part. Physiology looks at interactions. To do physiology, you have to know anatomy,” Miller said.
He creates the puzzles at the air-conditioned woodshop in the basement of one of the VMRC buildings. Close to where he lives, he said he was drawn to the shop as a retirement activity.
“Nobody makes anatomy puzzles. (I said) I’m going to do anatomy puzzles,” Miller said.
Having lived on farms, he was familiar with crude woodworking, but at VMRC, Miller said he became interested in the scroll saw, which uses a fine blade to cut intricate patterns and details in wood like the curved edge of a puzzle piece.
“I really hadn’t done woodworking before,” Miller said. “The first things I made were not very good.”
Miller said he’s created 20 different kinds of anatomy puzzles in the handful of years since he started carving. He uses pine, cherry, maple and other types to create other simple puzzles, alphabet and number toys, trucks and wooden farm toys and a few games.
Miller, who served as a mentor to numerous students at EMU and was considered an enlightening professor, according to media from the school, said he thought the anatomy puzzles would be a good way to introduce young kids to biology, so they’d be familiar with anatomy in school.
With a few rough edges, Miller said adopting his daughters years ago was tough. He said when they arrived, they only spoke Ukrainian. Eventually, both his daughters learned English, Miller said. They each live in the area, and Miller is now a grandfather of four, who each have “their share” of carved wooden toys.
Named after the farm where he and his family raise sheep and blackberries, Miller’s business, “Knoll Acres Woodworking,” has an online store and is also present at area craft shows, such as the autumn festival in Broadway, the holiday market at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds and VMRC’s craft shows.
“I like the variety. I don’t make tons and tons of copies of the same thing,” Miller said. “Once I make something, and I make it pretty nice, I want to try something different.”