John Earl Miller

John Earl Miller passed away on December 21st, 2020, at the age of 76 in Boise surrounded by his loved ones. John was born June 24, 1944, in Haynesville, Louisiana, and raised by his loving parents, Maxine and John Miller.

John joined the Navy in 1962 at the age of 17 and served three years and five months. Two of those were overseas. He served on the ship USS Mazama as a gunner’s mate.

In 1978, John married the love of his life, Claudia, in Boise, Idaho. On June 26, 1979, they were sealed as an eternal family in the Salt Lake Temple. He held various positions in the church, including member of the bishopric, Elder’s quorum president, Sunday school teacher, primary teacher, and in the young men’s presidency. When he was in the young men’s, he went on a camping trip with the boys and, as they were struggling to get up the mountain, our dad passed them by. When the boys got to the camping spot, they were a little taken back when they saw him cooking on his cast iron griddle. He told the boys he needs to have the right items to cook with. He loved the gospel of Jesus Christ and loved doing family history work and being in the temple.

John was a man of many talents. One of his many talents was that of woodworking. He made the grandkids toyboxes and school desks, shadow boxes with his sweetie, items for the haunted houses, the stake live nativity, and any other wood project any of us could come up with for him to do. He enjoyed helping at any of his girls’ homes with lots of patience while he taught us all any number of things from painting to building fences. He loved his honey dos and his daughter dos.

Our dad truly loved helping others. He took his home teaching duties seriously. He made sure his families knew he loved them and that he was there for them. Whenever there was a need by a family in the ward or the neighborhood, our dad could be found there helping.

Our dad loved visiting Sarah and her family in Wyoming and working with the pigs, from the time they got the pigs to the time they took them to the fair to sell them. He loved helping his grandsons Brylie and Dylan with this adventure and any others they could come up with while he was there. They also loved shooting their various guns off the back deck. Sarah loved putting an extra load of powder in the bullets and then watching dad’s face when he would fire off those rounds because it was a surprise to him. Dad also loved to build fires outside -- the bigger the better. At Sarah’s, she would tell him to keep it small and then turn her back and the fire was huge!

John had a fantastic sense of humor. He often would be found laughing as he made his own jokes he made up in his head. Most times, he would laugh so much at his own jokes he could not tell anyone else the joke (he even wrecked a tractor once!).

John was a friend of everyone that knew him and especially loved Rod Lords.

Our dad enjoyed a great conversation with other people, even a stranger in the store. Most people knew him in Gilette, Wyoming, from his various visits there. He enjoyed speaking politics with his grandson Caleb along with everyone else, including KBOI.

John worked several different jobs over the course of his life. He was a logger, welder, worked on a dairy farm, loved to garden, and sold fireworks (oh, how he loved fireworks!). For a time, he had all the items needed to get worms to come up out of the ground, and he also sold those. He was a great softball coach and loved by all his players. He eventually retired from the Idaho Department of Corrections and was then busier than ever with honey-dos and grandkids.

John is survived by his wife of 47 years, Claudia; daughters Rondi (Frank Guy) Miller, Tiffany Miller, Monica Miller, and Sarah (Doug) Skillings; sisters Bonnie Nixon and Martha (Gary) Vining; 11 grandkids; six great-grandkids; and several nieces and nephews. John was preceded in death by his parents, brothers Don Miller, Ron Miller, and LaMar Smith, and his sister Linda Mulkey.

The family would like to thank the wonderful people that helped care for our dad from St Als and Keystone Hospice.

Services for John will be December 30th at 1pm at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 8620 W Goddard Rd, Boise ID 83704. There will be a viewing Tuesday, December 29th, from 6pm to 8pm at Relyea Funeral Chapel, 318 N Latah St, Boise, ID. John will be laid to rest at Dry Creek Cemetery.

For those who are unable to attend the services the services will be zoomed lived at: https://byui.zoom.us/j/91430723832