Renee Miller

Our friend and colleague Renee Miller was called home by her Heavenly Father on Friday, November 25, 2011, after a lengthy illness. Renee dedicated her life to assisting the citizens of Texas and employers for many years in the Employer Commissioner's office at the Texas Workforce Commission. She will be missed dearly by not only her friends and colleagues, but literally thousands of Texas employers she assisted for so many years.

Before she came to the Texas Workforce Commission in January, 1989 (when it was still known as the Texas Employment Commission), Renee spent several years at the Railroad Commission, and later worked in the office of Jim Kaster, the employer representative at the Industrial Accident Board. She followed Mr. Kaster to TEC, where he started as the chairman of the agency and later became the employer representative. Renee was instrumental in the design and implementation of the Texas Business Conference seminars sponsored by the employer commissioner's office at TWC. The TBC seminars have been attended by tens of thousands of business owners and managers over the years since Renee started helping with them in 1993. For many years, she gave the talk on how employers can avoid legal problems when discharging employees. Later, she took on the topic relating to employee policies and became known as a leading authority on how to design and implement effective workplace policies. Her influence in the area of employment relations cannot be overestimated. More than one generation of business managers and HR specialists have learned from her the art of handling employment issues in a fair, consistent, and legal manner that respects the rights of employees, and that means that countless employees in this state have benefited as well from what Renee taught to employers over the years.

Starting in 2006, Renee was in charge of the speakers and many of the arrangements for the conferences, and she acted as the editor in chief of the quarterly newsletter for employers, Texas Business Today. She was the main attorney responding to employers' e-mail inquiries and helped answer hundreds of questions every week on the toll-free help line for employers. She helped train several law clerks and younger attorneys who worked in the employer commissioner's office over the years. Through them, her legacy will benefit employers and employees for years to come.

Those who knew her can attest that few people have ever faced medical adversities with more grit and determination than Renee. She insisted on continuing her work for the agency at home up until the day before Thanksgiving Day, 2011. After spending a final Thanksgiving with her husband, Howard Joseph, she passed peacefully during the morning's early hours into the loving arms of her Savior.

She was preceded in death by her father, Dale McCright. Renee is survived by her mother, Ann McCright; husband, Howard Joseph, Jr.; step-children, Jonathan and Zachary Joseph.

Her honored Pallbearers: Jonathan Joseph, Zachary Joseph, Mac Carmona, Anthony Rizzo, Tommy Simmons and Jonathan Babiak.

Visitation will be 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Sunday, December 4th at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 2620 S. Congress Avenue. Funeral Service to be held 10:00 am, Monday, December 5th in Chapel. Interment will follow at Assumption Cemetery.

Memorials can be sent to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22718, Oklahoma City, OK 73123.

We would like to thank Dr. Laura Bunch at Texas Oncology and the staff at Seton Medical Center on 38th St. for the kind compassion they gave Renee throughout her care.