Michael John Miller
June 9, 1953 - September 8, 2021
Michael John Miller believed deeply in our capacity to care for each other, and for the planet.
He was born in Madison, Wisconsin on June 9, 1953 and his extraordinary life ended in Yuma, Arizona, where he lived for 32 years, on September 8, 2021.
Michael was a deep thinker and often taciturn, but he made his living talking and writing about subjects he loved as a professor and occasional columnist: English, writing, journalism, cinema, civics, communications, critical thinking, and the environment. He spent formative years in the Midwest, and then moved to Germany in 1964 when his parents took jobs teaching on a US military base. After graduating, he pursued degrees in English at Florida State and University of Florida, completing his PhD before moving to Yuma to become the first English faculty at NAU-Yuma. He enjoyed the challenge of pioneering stuff, leading him to become the first English teacher at Yuma Catholic High School. Most recently he spent 15 years serving the students of Arizona Western College as professor, adviser to the AzWesternVoice.org, Honors Director, and mentor. He hosted a variety of cinema events in Yuma before starting the still-running monthly foreign film series Thursdays at the Theater with wife Lori in 2005.
Michael was passionate about most kinds of music and dabbled at cello, flute, sax, keys, and guitar. He believed in the power of music to change the world. He also embarked on a life-changing sabbatical studying the Sonoran Desert that resulted in a team-taught English Environmental Science Sense of Place class at AWC, a variety of scholarly presentations, and a blog at SonoranVisions.com.
Michael was a tree-whisperer, a cultivator of cactus, ficus, citrus, and he reverently maintained one of the oldest Hansberger refrigeration towers in town. He was a wonderful wanderer, hitchhiking across Europe as a teen, paddling rivers in the southwest and the deep south, circumnavigating Mexico in a Chevette with brother Dave and daughter Karma; climbing volcanic cones in Mexico, Mayan temples in Guatemala, castles in Portugal, Incan ruins in Peru. He visited all 50 states; and as a convert to the church of the Sonoran desert, he made it to the headwaters of the Gila River just last summer. His greatest adventure, by far, was parenthood.
Michael is deeply loved and survived by his wife of 21 years, Lorraine Stofft; children Karma (David Herring), Marcus, James (Heather Monroe), and Mary; siblings Cherie, David, Shannon and Kim; grandchildren Aidan, Dylan, Mason and Destin; 6 nieces, 1 nephew; German shorthaired pointer, Cuzco; a stunning cactus garden; many Stofft family relatives; colleagues and friends at AWC; and lifelong friends from Germany, Tallahassee, Tampa, and points beyond.
His friends and family will celebrate his life at an openmic ceremony at the Yuma West Wetlands Park, Hummingbird Garden, on November 13, 2021 at
2:00 pm. And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.
In fond memory of Michael, learn something new, compost, recycle, take a hike, contemplate a film with a friend, register to vote, make music, read a book or help a college student out by donating to the Dr. Michael Miller Memorial Scholarship at https://foundation.azwestern.edu/
“...we understand less and less how we are part of the natural order; we believe that the world around us is a network of resources for our convenience rather than a recombination of the same stardust of which we ourselves are formed. Just maybe, if we could discipline ourselves to recognize the place where we are at the moment as a living, breathing organism, we might be compelled to nurture rather than abuse it.” - Michael John Miller, 2019