The following obituary of Anthony O. Miller was written by Frank Csongos and edited by Dave Rosso, both colleagues of Miller's in the UPI WA buro in the 1980's an dearly 90's. It was submitted to news organizations in this form. It was reworked for publication in the UPI obituary linked below.
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Anthony O. Miller, a veteran reporter and
editor who covered the first Gulf War for United Press International and also
wrote and edited stories for The Associated Press and Reuters news agencies in
Europe and Asia, died Nov. 23 in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was 68 and had been
battling prostate cancer for three years.
During a 40-year career, Miller lived and worked in 26 countries.
His editing assignments at UPI included the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the unraveling of communism in Eastern and Central Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Miller once said, “I spent 30 years in news, the best 10 with UPI,” and said he considered the highlight of his journalism career his coverage of the Gulf War in 1991. UPI dispatched him along with several other top correspondents to cover the conflict. The war came after Iraq invaded Kuwait and the United States and its coalition partners moved against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and dislodged his troops from the oil-rich country.
Miller began working for UPI in San Francisco in 1984 and was transferred to Trenton, N.J., and later to Washington.
He left the news agency in 1992.
After leaving UPI, he did stints with the AP in Nicosia, Cyprus, Reuters in Hong Kong and the English language edition of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.
Miller also worked with authors George Klineman, Sherman Butler and David Conn on a book about Jim Jones and the People’s Temple. The book, titled, The Cult That Died: The Tragedy of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, was finished after the 1978 Jonestown massacre that claimed 909 lives. Miller was the primary researcher for the book.
Informed of Miller’s death, Klineman said, “I had the highest regard for Tony. I have really fond memories of the guy.”
Klineman added: “I can’t imagine a better researcher than Tony. He was amazing. He was absolutely incredible. He would get on a research project and just wouldn’t let it go. I always knew I could count on him.”
Klineman related that once Miller went to a man’s house to gather information and was greeted by the man sitting at a table with a pistol. “Tony told me he just kept talking to the guy. He knew if he acknowledged the pistol, he would be acknowledging the fear factor and he wasn’t going to do that.” Klineman added, “But he told me he didn’t think he wanted to talk to him again.”
David Rosso, who worked alongside Miller in Washington at UPI, said: "He was vocal. He was energetic. He was ALL CAPS. He was excitable. He was personable. He was agreeable. He was sometimes disagreeable ... and he valued his Unipresser days."
Didi Hunter, another former UPI staffer, said Miller was in terrible pain the last few months of his life. But she said he never lost hope until the very end.
Miller was born in 1943 in Baltimore, Md., into a Catholic family. He is survived by brothers Scott, Mark and Kelly as well as sisters Krista Nordhoff, Lauria Saxon, and Mary Dorshiemer.
His younger brother, Kelly, said: "Tony was a flaming liberal (who) marched to the beat of a different drum. He traveled the world as a modern day nomad, chasing happiness, always two steps behind, chasing news stories, always two steps in front and in the meantime chasing memories with us as brothers and sisters and always on cue."
Miller's body was cremated in Mexico. His ashes will be scattered around a family grave.
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The author, Frank T. Csongos, worked with Mr. Miller at UPI in Washington.
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This is the version published by UPI:
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Click below for several pictures of Tony Miller,
during his stay in Portland, at a Unipresser minibash in JO
on April 6, 2008.
(Pictures courtesy of Dave Rosso.)