Retired chemical engineer, meal delivery volunteer

After a 30-plus-year career as a chemical engineer, Clarence L. “Chick” Miller Jr. went on to volunteer with Meals on Wheels for more than 15 years.

By the time he stopped volunteering at age 90, Mr. Miller was older than the folks he had been helping with delivered lunches and dinners.

“I would call my dad every day just to check in on him,” said his son, Keith Miller of Costa Mesa, Calif. “And sometimes he would tell me, ‘I have to hang up now and go feed the kids.’ ”

That sense of humor was ever-present, said the younger Mr. Miller and his sister, Karen Gallo, who moved into her father’s home in O’Hara seven years ago to help care for him.

She recalled that a large part of their upbringing was “watching my dad be funny.” And he was still making jokes even after his health began to fail around Christmas, she said.

Mr. Miller died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at the home on White Gate Road where the family had lived for 56 years. He was 94.

As a chemical engineer, Mr. Miller developed coatings for Allegheny Ludlum’s specialty steel business in its research laboratory in the Natrona Heights section of Harrison. Over the course of his career, he received 12 patents related to his work.

That followed a military stint during World War II, piloting a B-26 Marauder for missions in Germany, Belgium and France. The sixman crew stayed in touch after the war, Mrs. Gallo said, and Mr. Miller hosted a reunion for all of them in 1994 in O’Hara.

A graduate of Peabody High School and the University of Pittsburgh, Mr. Miller retired from Allegheny Ludlum at age 59 after which he and his wife, Helen, traveled extensively, including visits to China, Australia, Ireland, France, Spain, Greece, Russia and parts of Africa. His international travels ended following her death in 2007, but he remained active, playing in a golf league of current and former Allegheny Ludlum employees into his late 80s.

Mr. Miller also served as church deacon and usher at Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church, was a volunteer firefighter for a time and coached his son’s Little League baseball team for a couple of years “even though my dad wasn’t super athletic in any way, shape or form,” his son said.

“He was a very philosophical, compassionate man,” he added.

No visitation is being held. A memorial service will be held 11 a.m. April 20 at Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church, 384 Fox Chapel Road. Arrangements are being handled by Weddell-Ajak Funeral Home in Aspinwall.

The family requests that memorial contributions be made to the church.