Jeffrey D. Miller

March 16, 1950 - November 16, 2023

Jeffrey “Jeff” Miller died peacefully on November 16, surrounded by family, from complications after heart surgery at the age of 73.

On March 16, 1950 in Buffalo, NY, Jeff was born a twin preceded by his sister, Jennifer, who was born 8 minutes earlier. The first two of five children, their siblings David, Jonathan and Todd all followed after. Throughout his years growing up, Jeff and his brothers managed to fill their time with countless projects including making go-carts, building an underground tunnel tailored after “The Great Escape” movie, constructing tree houses, and pulling pranks on each other. Never idle, they were inseparable and always industrious in their schemes and inventions mostly crafted by their elder brother, Jeff.

The majority of Jeff’s formative years were spent in East Aurora where he attended East Aurora schools, then for the last two years of high school, his family moved to Massachusetts where Jeff graduated from Hingham High School in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1968. He later attended the Boston Museum School of Art for a short time then returned to the Buffalo area with his family to work as a form carpenter for countless projects in the city over a period of ten years that included Jim Kelly Camp for Kids, Buffalo State College Sports Complex and Zern-NepCo Cogeneration Plant. For the last twenty years before his death, Jeff worked on the grounds team at the East Aurora Country Club, implementing new and artistic ideas throughout the course as well as developing deep friendships.

During these same years after returning to Buffalo, along with his work as a carpenter and a groundskeeper at EACC, Jeff’s passion for art flourished. He developed a devoted commitment to watercolors through the inspiration from local accomplished artists such as Robert Blair, Hugh Laidman and Rixford Jennings who instilled a lasting and indelible impression on Jeffrey as to the full range and dimension of this versatile medium. Later influences would lead Jeff from the paintings of Ted Kautzy, Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth to the timeless works of the Dutch masters most notably Jan Vermeer. Totally prolific during these years, Jeff’s watercolor paintings appeared in such national exhibitions as the American Watercolor Society of New York, the National Arts Club of New York, the National Academy of Design, the American Artists Competition, the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society of Lockport and the Adirondack National Exhibition of Watercolors in Old Forge, NY.

From out of these artistic endeavors, grew a love of furniture making, hard scape projects such as making millstone reproductions and stone columns to designing and building his own home in Bliss, NY. A quiet, pensive and gentle giant, everything Jeff touched, everything he saw and everything he created was rooted in his view of art in his world.

Jeff is survived by his siblings Jennifer Miller Higgins (Richard Higgins Jr.), David Carl Miller and Jonathan Morgan Miller and is preceded in death by his parents, Carl Alfred Miller and Sallie Morgan Miller and his brother Todd Richard Miller (Stephanie Fancher Miller). Private burial is to take place at Oakwood Cemetery. A memorial service at the East Aurora Presbyterian Church at 9 Paine Street, East Aurora will be held on Saturday, December 9 at 12:00 noon. All family and friends are invited to a reception at the church immediately following the service.

Flowers gratefully declined. Arrangements made by Wood Funeral Home of 784 Main Street, East Aurora.