Patrick Michael Miller

Patrick Michael Miller passed away on December 19, 2022. Pat was born on June 2, 1936, the second of 14 children born to William and Evelyn Miller in the small northern Michigan farming community of Maple City. His parents instilled in him a love of farmland and hard work. Pat graduated from Northern Michigan Community College, moving on to Michigan State University for his bachelor's degree. He worked 40 hours a week while going to school full-time. Pat still found time to meet the love of his life during his junior year, Dolores (Dee) Osterman. They married in 1957. Pat then worked for two years as a high school math teacher and completed his master's degree, before heading back to Michigan State for a Ph.D. in applied mechanics. Pat and Dee lived in university housing with their young children, forming friendships with other graduate students from throughout the country and world, some that have endured to this day. This experience was the start of Pat's lifelong fascination with international travel and cuisine.

After earning his doctorate, Pat and Dee moved their family to Alden, New York. Pat began work in the automotive safety field, leading design and testing efforts to make vehicles more durable. He started his career at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories, and eventually formed his own company in 1977, MGA Research Corporation. Launched as a three-person shop in a small office park in Cheektowaga, NY, MGA is a family owned and operated business that expanded over the next 45 years to include large facilities in Akron, NY; Detroit, MI; and seven other testing and engineering sites throughout the U.S. and Canada. Scores of MGA employees continue to spearhead safety efforts in automotive, aircraft, and space vehicle design. Pat was an international leader, testifying before Congress about automotive safety, and becoming the first person in his discipline to publish an article in Scientific American. He served on advisory boards for the Michigan State University Engineering College for many years.

When Pat embarked on a career in vehicle safety, he knew he had picked a profession where the work would never end. He did not believe in retirement, and he continued to contribute to MGA until his passing. Even with this work ethic, Pat still found plenty of time for his passions and hobbies--lazy afternoons at the ballpark, gardening, antique cars, tractor pulls, stinky cheeses, and producing the world's best Caesar salad. Pat's exotic experiments in cooking over the years ranged from great successes (oxtail stew) to complete disasters (deep-fried jalapeno-stuffed turkey). He and Dee spent winter months at their second home in Lakeland, Florida so they could go to all the Detroit Tigers spring training games. His blood ran green for the Michigan State Spartan athletic program, traveling often to East Lansing to cheer on the basketball and football teams.

Pat loved his children, but nothing delighted him more than his grandchildren and great grandchildren. He was blessed with a steady stream of new ones for over 40 years to dote on and spoil rotten. The summer grandkid weeks Pat and Dee hosted (with no parents allowed) were the stuff of legend. Each grandchild on their tenth birthday would choose a place in the world they wanted to visit with their grandpa and grandma, and their cousins tagged along for these adventures. He fulfilled their requests to take a helicopter into a volcano in Hawaii, eat pasta in Italy, and ride a camel in Egypt.

Pat often told those he loved that "we all get the same 24 hours in a day" as a way of urging us to make the most of every one. He lived by these words. Pat is survived by Dee, his beloved wife of 65 years, as well as Dee's sister and his dear friend, Jan Polus. He also leaves behind his children Mary (Douglas) Stein, Brenda (David) Power, Suzanne (John) Phillips, and Patrick Michael Miller II (Liane). His grandchildren are Julie Stein (Ben Andrews), John (Katie) Stein, Tony (Kathy) Stein, Andrew (Hillary) Stein, Deanna Power (Austin Johnson), Patrick Michael Miller III, Maxwell Miller, Alana Miller, and Kristina Miller. Great-grandchildren are Matthew Stein, Christopher Stein, Jacob Stein, Douglas Stein, Melanie Stein, Kayla Stein, Arthur Stein, and Cora Stein. Pat is also survived by 10 siblings and their spouses, as well as dozens of nieces, nephews, cousins and their offspring. Viewing hours at the Charles Meyer Funeral Home in Alden, New York will be held from 3 - 6 p.m. on Thursday, December 22. A funeral mass will be held at St. John the Baptist Church in Alden, NY at noon on Tuesday, December 27. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the MGA Research Corporation Endowed Fund for Entrepreneurship at Michigan State University: https://givingto.msu.edu/gift/?sid=14227