Jeff Miller

Jeffrey Donald Miller was born on September 25, 1950, in Beckley, West Virginia, to Joseph and Sylvia Miller. His younger brother, Dennis, was born two years later. Growing up in the heart of coal country, Jeff was always a good student who was interested in science and mathematics. He was also a Cub Scout.

Jeff was never interested in participating in athletics or sports. But he still took a keen interest in things like baseball statistics. He became the official scorekeeper for the Beckley Little League, and later for the Babe Ruth League, where he maintained and constantly updated the batting averages for all the players of all the teams in the league. He loved announcing the upcoming batters on the public address system … which turned out to be a warm-up for his future as a broadcaster on the radio.

His love of radio began at a very early age. Jeff got a part-time, on-the-air job at local Beckley radio station WJLS starting when he was 14 or 15 years old … working weekends during the school year, and more in the summers.

His job with the radio station was to be a disc jockey and to read the news every hour from the wire service. While Jeff had a very shy personality, this didn’t keep him from enjoying his role as a radio broadcaster.

During his high school years In Beckley, Jeff continued to be an outstanding student. He was a member of the National Honor Society, the Science Club, the Debate Club, the History Club, the Chess Club, and the Broadcasting Club.

His academic record earned him a scholarship to Duke University, which he attended for about two years. But, to the great dismay of his parents, Jeff decided that he didn’t want to be in college. Instead, he wanted to continue being on the radio. So he dropped out of Duke and began working full time in radio. He worked at stations in North Carolina while he was still enrolled at Duke. And then he worked for radio stations back in West Virginia.

When Jeff enrolled in college, he received a deferment from the draft. This was at a time when the Vietnam War was raging. But when he dropped out of school, Jeff felt like the “draft number” he received from Selective Service was good enough to keep him from being called up. But he was wrong, and he got drafted into service.

To avoid being drafted into the Army, Jeff joined the Air Force and served his time mainly at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. This was near the end of the war, so he was never sent to the front lines in Vietnam. Instead, due in part no doubt to his previous experience, he was selected to serve in the Air Force’s radio relay service.

In an interview, Jeff once told how he had spent a cold night on a hill repairing a radio antenna for one of the West Virginia stations where he worked. After that, he decided to look for a warmer place to work and live. He followed through on that desire by moving to Florida and going to work for WGUL in New Port Richey. We are forever grateful for that job opportunity that brought Jeff to our community!

Jeff had a talk show at WGUL radio station and was also the station engineer. Having previously acquired a First Class Radio Operator’s license, he was a very important asset to the local radio station. Jeff said he didn’t like being called the “station engineer” because he did not hold an engineering degree, and he thought the title sounded pompous. He referred to his position at the station as a “technician”.

After working for many years in the radio business as an engineer, announcer and broadcaster, Jeff decided it was time for a career change some time around 1990. So he enrolled at the University of South Florida and earned a degree in mathematics.

In 1991, Jeff started his career as a teacher at River Ridge High School. In 1995, he became a math teacher at Gulf High School.

It seems that all of Jeff’s students, his faculty associates, and the school management, thought the world of him. In 1999, after teaching for only 8 years, he was selected as the Pasco County winner of the Lignell Award, which honors outstanding math and science teachers in Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. The award is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – a national society which had almost 2,500 members in the Tampa Bay area at the time.

Soon afterward, Jeff was the recipient of the Gulf High School teacher of the year award in 2013. And again in 2014!

One of the principals he worked under, Dr. Steve Knobl, said the following about Jeff;

“Jeff was a fantastic man and a wonderful teacher. He was one of my favorite educators at Gulf High School. He had an incredible impact on so many children. He made mathematics fun and engaging, which is not easy to pull off with high school students! Jeff was not only a fantastic man. He was a wonderful teacher. Embracing the new media of podcasts, Jeff became responsible for the school’s website in addition to teaching math. He attended football games and other school sporting events and activities … and always took pictures and posted them on the school website.”

Jeff Miller’s love and interest in mathematics did not stop in the classroom. He became immersed in math history and started several websites having to do with the history of mathematics. They included;

• Images of mathematicians on postage stamps.

• Earliest known uses of some of the words of mathematics.

• Earliest uses of various mathematical symbols.
• Ambiguously defined mathematical terms at the high school level.

These websites attracted the attention of mathematics enthusiasts the world over. And the websites were set up to be collaborative efforts. Eventually Jeff’s entire collection of math websites was taken over by the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Jeff’s interests were not limited to mathematics. He loved radio, and he loved history. And he developed other websites to support those interests;

• A collection of word oddities and trivia.
• History of Beckley and Raleigh County, West Virginia.
• History of American broadcasting.
• History of broadcasting in West Virginia.
• Some Tampa and St. Petersburg radio history.
• History of Woodrow Wilson High School, Beckley, West Virginia.
• Remembering WDBS, the campus radio station of Duke University.

The first website listed above, about word oddities and trivia, was supported by Jeff’s big collection of abridged and unabridged dictionaries. Jeff was a big fan of the Oxford English Dictionary, and he bought a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Jeff liked having just the right work to explain everything.

In addition to the numerous websites Jeff maintained, he had a huge number of photo archives and albums that were available on-line. Here are some examples;

• Radios – over 9,000 images of old radios. Another collaborative effort with contributions from all over the world.
• Broadcasting – Over 30 albums with pictures from a number of different radio stations.
• Raleigh County, West Virginia historic photos.
• Gulf High School photos (259 albums).
• Pasco County, Florida historic photos.
• Hernando County, Florida historic photos.
• Pinellas County, Florida historic photos.

In 2018, Jeff was selected as not just a member – but an honorary member of the West Pasco Historical Society. His contributions to the Society are immense;

• Digitized over 3,000 photos in the WPHS collection and added captions to many of them.
• Digitized maps and some newspapers.
• Photographed every major program presented by the Society.
• Photographed every special visitor who came to the museum while he was here.
• Created slide shows for presentations.
• Produced a full-color trifold brochure for the WPHS.
• Published the WPHS newsletter.

Perhaps Jeff’s greatest accomplishment when it comes to websites (at least in the view of the West Pasco Historical Society) was his creation of https://Fivay.org. Containing detailed history of Pasco County, and some parts of Pinellas and Hernando County, it is an amazing resource for any researcher interested in the history of our local area. Since Jeff’s passing, the Fivay.org website has become a static website that may cease to exist at some point. However, the West Pasco Historical Society has captured the content of Jeff’s Fivay.org website and his historic photo archives so that they may be preserved in the future. We continue to maintain and upgrade this valuable resource. (see https://westpascomuseum.org/pascohistory/historicalinformation/)

An 2011 interview with Jeff Miller by Pasco County Schools can be seen HERE.
A video clip of Jeff Miller at the start of class for eight consecutive days – filmed by one of his students – can be seen HERE.

The West Pasco Historical Society will forever be grateful for the contributions made by Jeff Miller, who died on June 16, 2022, at his home in New Port Richey, Florida.

This page was created on June 2, 2024 by Paul Herman, Digital media archivist, West Pasco Historical Society.
Much of the content was derived from a presentation by member Laurie Baker at the WPHS annual membership meeting held on May 31, 2024.
Thanks to Dennis Miller for sharing biographical details about Jeff’s life.
This page was last updated on June 2, 2024.