Here Walked A Leader
Sen. Thomas V. “Mike” Miller being introduced by Greater Prince George’s County Business Roundtable President/CEO Jim Estepp at a meeting of county business leaders in 2019.
Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable President Jim Estepp Remembers Sen. Thomas V. “Mike” Miller
By Jim Estepp
The state of Maryland has lost a titan. Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr. (December 3, 1942 – January 15, 2021) was so much more than that, though. He was also my friend for the better part of six decades.
He was a dedicated husband, father and grandfather, and a fighter in the courtroom as well as in the backrooms and offices in Annapolis.
Though we lost him yesterday, his legacy will live on, in the buildings that bear his name, and in the lives he changed with the thousands of pieces of legislation that he helped shepherd through the Senate.
No one was more dedicated to higher education in the state, as he fought tirelessly to grow funding for Maryland’s flagship university, his alma mater, but also for all colleges and universities, especially those in his home county of Prince George’s.
He was from here in Prince George’s, the first of ten siblings, and he never stopped advocating for the people and businesses of the county, even when he moved to Calvert County. His heart never left his long-time home in Clinton and Prince George’s.
I’ve known more public officials than I can count, and none of them answered faster, or more attentively than Mike Miller. He was my Senator, and he was always there, for matters large or small, any time he was called upon.
He was dedicated to our military, first responders and health care front line workers, long before the pandemic struck, and he continued to serve them, every day up until his resignation from the Senate last month.
He never stopped serving any of us, and that, perhaps more than any dozen pieces of legislation, will be the legacy he leaves for me, and for the so many of us that he touched in his 50 years of service to the county and the entire state of Maryland.
I will miss him, as I know all of you will, but I will never forget his quick wit, his strength or his indomitable will, all of which could be on display in the same conversation.
Please join me in prayers for his wife Patti, his siblings, his five children and fifteen grandchildren in their time of grief.
With Appreciation and Sadness,
Reprinted Courtesy of the Greater Prince George’s County Business Roundtable
