Francis Pickens Miller

Francis Pickens Miller (June 5, 1895 – August 3, 1978) was an American military and intelligence officer and Virginia politician who served in the

While in Europe, he met American journalist Helen Hill, and they married in 1927 in Oxfordshire, England. They would remain married until his death more than five decades later, and have sons Andrew P. Miller and Robert D. Miller.

Career

Miller served during

From 1928 until 1938, Miller served as chairman of the World Student Christian Federation, and would remain active in his Presbyterian Church throughout his life, as well as publish in Presbyterian Life.^[8]

Miller was the organizer and the executive secretary of the National Policy Committee,^[9] and helped found the Council on Foreign Relations, whose chief executive he became.^[10] During the 1930s, Miller also strongly spoke out against Adolf Hitler and urged war preparedness.^[11] He realized that Virginia's U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd's close financial scrutiny was "nickel and dimming" national war preparedness, because of the Senator's hatred of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, although a fellow Democrat.^[12]

While in the Virginia General Assembly (a part-time position) beginning in 1938, Miller allied with Virginia Governor

Richard R. Farr defeated Miller in 1942, but died before taking his seat. Thus, Robert J. McCandlish Jr. replaced him as Fairfax's delegate in the General Assembly.^[15]

During

In 1946, Miller moved his family from the stone farmhouse near Fairfax city where they had lived for decades, to Charlottesville, Virginia, location of the U.S. Army's Officer Candidate School and (beginning in the 1960s) the United States Army Foreign Science and Technology Center. In his 1948 application for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution, Miller characterized his occupation as "MI-Res" and as a writer. He and his wife would also live for a time in Washington, D.C. before their retirement.

After President

In February 1949, Miller announced his candidacy for Governor of Virginia. However, with the assistance of Virginia Beach boss Sidney Kellam (U.S. Senator Byrd technically remaining neutral), John S. Battle defeated Miller and two lesser opponents in the Democratic primary. Battle depicted Miller as a liberal and controlled by labor unions, and nearly ignored his other opponents (Horace Edwards and Petersburg businessman Remmie Arnold). Prominent Republican Henry Wise of Virginia's Eastern Shore even urged his supporters to vote for Battle in the Democratic primary to repel the "invasion by aliens." Battle won 43% of the vote; Miller 35%, Edwards 15% and Arnold 7%.^[17]

Undeterred, Miller announced a run against U.S. Senator Byrd himself in 1952, characterizing the powerful senator's record as one of "isolation and indifference." Byrd's allies in the Virginia General Assembly moved the primary from early August to July 15, and Byrd rebuffed Miller's offer to debate, instead delivering over 300 speeches across the Commonwealth (sometimes as many as eight in a day). Byrd handily defeated Miller, winning 63% of the vote.

Final years, death and legacy

The University of North Carolina Press published Miler's autobiography Man from the Valley in 1971, which he dedicated to his wife, correspondent Helen Hill Miller.^[19]

When both retired, they moved to near

His son Andrew P. Miller had become a lawyer, and in 1969 had been elected Virginia's attorney general to succeed segregationist Robert Young Button. Although re-elected to the Virginia Attorney General position, Andrew P. Miller like his father lost a Democratic primary for Governor (in 1977 to Lieutenant Governor Henry Howell, who lost the general election to Republican John N. Dalton). The George Marshall Foundation maintains Francis Pickens Miller's papers relating to his military and federal service; the University of Virginia's Alderman library has records relating to his political career.^[21]

References