WILLIAM G. MILLER

1931 - 2020

MILLER, William G. Globe Editor, Mentor to Young Journalists Isle of Wight – London-born William G. Miller was an Englishman through and through who practiced newspaper journalism in the United States for some three decades, most notably in Boston, where he worked at The Boston Globe (two stints) and at the Boston Phoenix, where, as the ranking editor during the news-rich 1970s, he presided over a youthful cadre of men and women eager, as he once put it, to "set things straight." Mr. Miller was 89 when he died on March 2 of this year in his home on the Isle of Wight. The son of a vaudevillian "song and dance man" and his wife, also a performer, Mr. Miller spent most of his boyhood on the isle, situated about six miles off the coast of southern England, after his parents moved there as the movies squeezed the relish out of their touring performances. He began his career as a newspaperman at age 14 when he secured a position on the island weekly. After a stint in the British Army, Mr. Miller left for the United States, landing a job as a newspaper reporter in Newport News, VA, before moving to the Bahamas as the editor of the Nassau Guardian. His next posting was as a police reporter in Fall River after which, in 1958, he was named editor of the Amesbury (MA) News. In 1965, he joined the staff of the Globe, working as a supervising editor on the evening edition's copy desk. He resigned in the early 1970s to become the editor of the Phoenix, a feisty tabloid whose young and talented writers chronicled the comings and goings of the city's young, mostly student, population with an emphasis on arts, entertainment, politics, and the media. "Bill was the first grownup I ever hired," Phoenix publisher Stephen Mindich said at the time. David Moran, Mr. Miller's deputy during those years, remembers his "leadership and confidence" as he tutored the young staff. Returning to the Globe in 1978 as the newspaper's writing coach, Mr. Miller eventually became metro editor and an assistant managing editor before leaving in 1986 to return, with his wife, Maijaleena, to his boyhood home in England. Frank Grundstrom, a longtime Globe editor and executive, remembers his friend as "a top notch, serious editor who outside the newsroom was a joyful and spontaneous soul always planning the next adventure." Mr. Miller leaves his wife Maijaleena, of the Isle of Wight, and, from a previous marriage, a daughter, Sunday, of Brighton, MA, and a son, Scott, of Hillsboro, NH. A Memorial Service will be scheduled later near his home.