Edward C. Miller

Passed away peacefully September 1, 2024 at age eighty-eight in Rochester New York.  Dearly loved husband to Ruth Schultz for nineteen years and devoted partner for thirteen years prior to marriage.  Son of Edward and Rita Miller.  Father to Andrew V. Miller (Gabriella) and grandfather to Luca.  Half-brother to John Miller (Veronica), half-brother to Shirley Walden and half-brother to Maureen Lang (Bill).  Predeceased by stepfather Walter Morris and half-brother Mike Morris.  Ed is survived by many nieces, nephews, caring in-laws and friends, especially Joni, Jeff and Susie.

Ed attended schools in the Buffalo area and intended to join the US Navy after graduation even acquiring the traditional tattoo of that time.  He was rejected due to losing a kidney after a lengthy bout of tuberculosis in his late teens. Ed’s early interests in reading, drawing and passion for jazz blossomed during his time in a local sanatorium.  These early interests in reading, particularly in philosophy, drawing and passion for jazz continued throughout his life.

Ed graduated from the College for Fine Arts at the University of Buffalo in 1963 and graduated from the University of Illinois with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Drawing, Painting and Print Making in 1965.  He taught at University of Illinois, University of Buffalo and George Peabody College.  He then taught at Rochester Institute of Technology in the Department of Fine Arts Imaging Arts & Sciences for thirty-two years and ten months before retiring as a professor at the end of the academic year June 30,2001.  He met close friends and fellow artists Jerry Hayes and Richard Sturm at University of Illinois and University of Buffalo respectively.  Ed considered himself fortunate to be included in the education for so many gifted students throughout the years, several of whom he remained in touch with.

Ed was self-directed and self-motivated as a person and as an artist who drew, painted and constructed with the viewer’s imagination as a primary component.  He believed that art should express itself and that the viewer should interpret the art based upon their own life experience with each viewer’s values to be uniquely their own.  He delighted in surprises, challenges and processes that various mediums provided.  Sometimes the results were rewarding.  Sometimes not.

Ed’s Parkinson’s progressed over the years and began to claim his body and his immediate world with all the limitations it imposed.  Ed continued to sketch and draw daily even if only to result in marks on paper. This activity was as natural to him as drinking and eating.

The family wishes to sincerely thank the Highland Hospital Inpatient Palliative Care Team for their compassionately extraordinary care.

Contributions can be made to the charity of choice in Ed’s name.