Phillip D. "Phil" Miller

A Call Every Morning
Years ago, Phil Miller walked two hours from his home in Upper Manhattan across the 181st Street bridge to pick up his date in the Bronx because he could not afford the train and the cost of the date, too. He worked delivering newspapers so he would have enough money to take her to Greenwich Village, a big deal at the time.

After 33 years of marriage, Mr. Miller's devotion to his wife, Arlene, never wavered. Nor did his devotion to hard work, or long commutes. He was proud of being one of the youngest members of the Casualty Actuarial Society and of his position at Aon. In the summers, when the Millers left their home in Staten Island for their vacation home in the Poconos, Mr. Miller, 53, got up at 4 a.m. to take a bus to his office at the World Trade Center.

And each morning he would call his wife after he got to work, just to check in. On Sept. 11, he called from his office in the south tower. He told her he had seen the crash and was leaving; he got as far as the 78th floor.

Had he lived, the couple would have retired in four years to Orlando, Fla., near his daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters. Now Arlene Miller is moving south sooner than expected. "My windows face the World Trade Center; I can't stay here," she said. "He wouldn't have wanted it."