80th Birthday Wishes, Recollections and Tributes

11/1/2016

Please help Mike celebrate his upcoming 80th birthday (January, 2017) by sharing your birthday wishes in the comment section below. Also feel free to share your favorite memories of Mike over the years, whether personal or professional. You can also post wishes and recollections on the ORGANIZE! Training Center Facebook wall.

38 Comments

Renee Miller

11/1/2016 09:23:47 pm

Mike, I'm so looking forward to celebrating the big day (week!) with you, the kids, grandkids, and your many friends in January. I've now known and loved you for more than 25 years and am incredibly grateful for your ongoing presence in my life. You've enriched our lives immeasurably. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Love, Renee

Stephanie Long

11/7/2016 10:29:07 am

We can't wait to help you celebrate your 80th Birthday Mike!
Love, Stephanie, Martin, Annabel and Catie

Stephen Mott

11/26/2016 03:19:30 pm

Wish I could be there, Mike. It would be a great time. But Happy Birthday. You are four years ahead of mel

Candacy Taylor link

11/26/2016 04:43:52 pm

I am so proud and honored to have you in my life. I wish I could be there to celebrate your 80 years of grace, enduring love of humanity and your fierce, uncompromising fight for civil rights. You are my inspiration. As Bryan Stevenson says, "Don't ever stop beating the drum for justice." We all thank you and we all love you. Happy Birthday.

Miriam Glickman

11/26/2016 05:24:21 pm

Mike, I remember visiting you in a hospital in Mississippi. It must have been in 1963. My memory is you'd been in an accident and had your spleen removed. Not sure if that's right - it's a memory from a long time ago. It's nice to think that more than 50 years later I'll be helping you celebrate your birthday. Happy Birthday!

Heather Booth

11/26/2016 06:15:52 pm

Can't come to celebrate with you, but I do celebrate you--your years of commitment and organizing. You've done so much to make this a better and more just society--from SNCC and the Mission Organizing to ORGANIZE, Inc., union and faith work and your periodic missives advancing dignity for all people.
Warm regards and solidarity,
Heather

Cyndy Sheldon link

11/26/2016 08:11:06 pm

Hi Mike, Wish I could find a photo of you in Mexico with AFSC in San Nicolas de Los Ranchos! I think I was 20 so you must have been 19 at the time! That was a long time ago when we met...and am delighted we're still in contact. I won't be able to make it to your party, but will be thinking of you. Lots of Hugs, Cyndy

Fred Hirsch

11/26/2016 09:21:57 pm

It will be pleasure to celebrate with you on your 80th. I think you and I first met in San Francisco when SNCC was taking its baby steps - then in Mississippi when you were putting your life on the line everyday. I delivered a few donated cars, possibly to the Greenwood office. You were a leader and an inspiration then. You're no less than that now.

Susie Erenrich

11/27/2016 04:49:51 am

Happy Birthday Mike. I will be there in spirit. Wishing you the best of health and happiness and a very long life. I'm proud to call you a friend and mentor. Lots of love - Susie

Susan Gross

11/27/2016 12:46:05 pm

Happy birthday, Mike. Sorry I can't get west to celebrate with you. Have a super party.

Jerry Cox

11/27/2016 08:29:14 pm

Thanks Mike for the invite. Don't drive anymore at 91. Will be there if I can make it.

Jerry

J

David D. Kallick link

12/13/2016 06:41:31 pm

Mike,

Happy 80th Birthday!

I hope this reply isn't too long, but I can't help taking a little bit of space. It's been many years since we've talked, but you were an important part of my early life in politics.

I’ve been following your work ever since the days when I was editing Social Policy—in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when you were a loyal contributor.

On the occasion of your birthday, I took the opportunity to pull down a few of those old articles. My favorite has to be your reflection on the 30th anniversary of Freedom summer. The Movement, as you wrote about it, still loomed very large for those of us who were a little too young to have been part of it. Your reflections invoked not only the heroic efforts of so many, but also the complexities, the people who lost their lives, the mistakes, and the failures as well as the successes.

In that essay, as throughout your work, you enriched our way of thinking about the deep and painful and continuing lines of racial division in this country.

You brought book reviews (including one of We Make the Road by Walking), and a wider cultural perspective, to Social Policy. And, I still have on my shelf your extended argument with Gary Delgado’s book, Beyond the Politics of Place. That was an act of immense respect—taking Gary’s thinking seriously enough to put it through its paces, to test it out, and to challenge it.

I remember how you pushed me, too. My thinking was always richer for it. When I was writing about the importance of civil society, to take one example among many, you wrote one half of a debate we ran in the magazine about whether the category of “civil society” was a useful one, and about what kinds or organizing and organizations really matter. You were always critiquing and open to critique, debating and eager for debate, and engaging and encouraging and generous with your time and your thoughts.

When you took on editing Social Policy yourself—after I left, and after Andy Humm served as editor for some time—it seemed like a natural continuation of that ongoing conversation.

Your commitment to the movement (I’ll write it lower case) continues to inspire me, but so does your commitment to being open to new ideas, to intellectual honesty, and to continued, restless, seeking for justice and humanity.

I hope you have a wonderful birthday celebration.

All the best,

David

Lorie Hill

12/16/2016 06:22:37 pm

I'm so glad that I'll be celebrating your birthday with you, Mike, and Kathy! All respect and appreciation for your lifelong commitment to the righteous fight for racial equality, social justice and peace! Lorie

Susan Moon

12/16/2016 07:05:44 pm

Hey, Mike- I'm sorry I can't come to your party, as I'll be in DC with a million women, but I, too, and glad to know you and I'm inspired by your work. We're pretty new friends—we met at a SNCC reunion- the 50th anniversary of "Freedom Summer" just two years ago. But it feels like we knew each other for those 50 years, somehow. And I admire you and your lifetime work with organizing, Saul Alinsky, Organize Training Center, and your life of commitment to friends and family and civil rights, and your writing. Also you humor, and your most becoming hat. Have a great party!

Dave Hawbecker

12/18/2016 05:12:59 pm

Mike,
It has been a long time. Wasn't sure you were still alive. You have been an important person in my life and I thank you for everything. I now live in Oregon and will not be able to make the big event. Happy Birthday. I'm just a year behind you.
Dave Hawbecker

Jean Entine

12/18/2016 05:57:38 pm

Mike, sorry to miss this BIG event. We'lll have to celebrate after I arrive back in SF mid February. I am struck by the ease with which you extend your circle to include newcomers like me. Hats off to you and to a life lived fully. Jean

Mary Gonzales

12/18/2016 07:03:24 pm

Hi Mike: Happy Birthday. I can't be at your party but I wanted to write and wish you the best birthday ever. I still remember you attending my retirement party in Oakland and the precious poster you gifted me (it hangs proudly in my home). I have lived a blessed life surrounded by people like you. Your love of life, your passion for the people you interact with, your commitment to organize, the twinkle in your eye when you talk about your work, the smile on your face as you listen intently to whomever it may be you are talking to - including me.

Happy Birthday old friend. May you celebrate many more and may I be able to be present at a future celebration. Greg and I will keep you in our thoughts and in our prayers as you approach this important benchmark in your life and may you never ever lose the passion you have. Be Well!

Judy Bertelsen

12/18/2016 08:15:33 pm

Congratulations and Happy Birthday, Mike! Looking forward to seeing you and many friends at your celebration.

Harvey Schwartz

12/19/2016 09:10:28 am

Happy birthday, Mike!

With admiration for your careen and contributions to the party of humanity, In solidarity, Harvey

David Clisham

12/19/2016 02:47:38 pm

Mike: Pam and I will attend your 80th birthday party. See you then!

Peter Dahl

12/20/2016 12:18:49 pm

Early Recollections of Mike Miller:
In the summer of 1953, I was a painting apprentice and working at the old Lowell HS on Hayes St. Also working there was Ron Parshall. During lunch breaks we would shoot some hoops, and Ron could see that I was pretty good at basketball. He immediately recruited me to play on the St. James Presbyterian team . This involved in going to church and regularly practicing with the team. There I met a diminutive guard – Mike Miller! Ron played forward, Mike one of the guards, and I was the center. We won almost all of our games and just missed out being champions of the league. Mike and I hit it off quite well and after we both enrolled at UC Berkeley, where I boarded at Ridge House and Mike roomed & boarded at Cloyne Court (both Co-ops), we double dated and palled around. He and others introduced me to Styles Hall YMCA, which was a hotbed of liberal politics – I joined, but was not very active due to the time-consuming science courses that I had to take in order to graduate from the College of Chemistry. Mike became heavily involved in campus and National politics. I met Barbara in German class my Soph. Year and we were married graduation day in 1957. Mike was my Best Man. Here are two photos of Mike at the wedding:

(Photos did not show - contact me at bpdahl@aol.com to see them)

After graduation I became a teacher at Lowell High (my Alma Mater) and Mike went on to a very successful career as an Organizer for various organizations ending up with OTC.
Unfortunately I will not be able to attend Mike’s 80th Birthday Bash since I am expecting family then.
Early Recollections of Mike Miller:
In the summer of 1953, I was a painting apprentice and working at the old Lowell HS on Hayes St. Also working there was Ron Parshall. During lunch breaks we would shoot some hoops, and Ron could see that I was pretty good at basketball. He immediately recruited me to play on the St. James Presbyterian team . This involved in going to church and regularly practicing with the team. There I met a diminutive guard – Mike Miller! Ron played forward, Mike one of the guards, and I was the center. We won almost all of our games and just missed out being champions of the league. Mike and I hit it off quite well and after we both enrolled at UC Berkeley, where I boarded at Ridge House and Mike roomed & boarded at Cloyne Court (both Co-ops), we double dated and palled around. He and others introduced me to Styles Hall YMCA, which was a hotbed of liberal politics – I joined, but was not very active due to the time-consuming science courses that I had to take in order to graduate from the College of Chemistry. Mike became heavily involved in campus and National politics. I met Barbara in German class my Soph. Year and we were married graduation day in 1957. Mike was my Best Man. Here are two photos of Mike at the wedding:

After graduation I became a teacher at Lowell High (my Alma Mater) and Mike went on to a very successful career as an Organizer for various organizations ending up with OTC.
Unfortunately I will not be able to attend Mike’s 80th Birthday Bash since I am expecting family then.

Rosalie Ross Sennett

12/21/2016 11:43:27 am

Dear Mike,
I'm happy to know that you are still working to save this world.
We had a try at it with the Mission Council - fond memories.
Stay well and happy - and enjoy your birthday.
Love, Rosalie Ross Sennett

Suzon Solomon Kornblum

12/21/2016 12:56:20 pm

Happy significant Birthday Mike! I'm delighted to be able to attend your birthday celebration. It brings up fond memories of Berkeley, my living with Judy, and just around the corner and down from you and Herb-- and, later, working (typing?) on a local democratic (small 'd') ???? newsletter with you.

David G. Carnevale

12/22/2016 08:42:02 pm

I always tell students about you, how you investigated what was wrong with our problems at California State Employees Association (CSEA) in getting members in action, and finding out that I was very much part of that problem: taking people out of action, developing a staff in the field in an industrial social worker mode -- fixing things for people and ignoring the power they might have on their own given a chance. Did a fair amount of consulting doing what I could to get people to define their own problems and strategies, tactics about what they could do about them making them authors of their own script. I owe that to you.

The wisdom learned at that point led me to a philosophy of action and trust in people to decide rather than me being a fixer...

David

David G. Carnevale, PhD
Professor Emeritus
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Oklahoma

Tara Faulkner link

12/22/2016 09:40:32 pm

Dear Mike,

I first met you when Renee and I were living in Santa Cruz 27 years ago. Since then, we've been part of the same wonderful/crazy extended family. Consequently, we've been on an extended roller coaster ride together through various familial highs and lows too numerous and personal to mention here.

Through it all, I've always known you were a very good man. The fact that you are a truly great man, however, had somehow managed to escape me until a few months ago when I offered to help with OTC's new website. As I read through the historical material being posted to the site, I turned to Renee and said: "Mike is kind of the Forrest Gump of community organizing!"

What I meant by that was that you seem to have had an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time when so many truly historic events were taking place. The big difference, of course, is that you were an active, passionate participant is said events, and often even an instigator of same, while Forrest Gump was merely an accidental tourist.

This is what makes you a great man in my eyes.

I won't be at your birthday party, but I will be there in spirit, celebrating all the ways this world is a much better place because you have been, and continue to be, in it.

I'm grateful to have been on the roller coaster ride with you all these years. Your calm, steady presence has helped keep the cars from derailing on many occasions.

I love you,

Tara

Tom Ramsay

12/23/2016 05:07:04 pm

Many years ago when we first met at a talk you gave about the southern civil rights movement at San Francisco (then) State. Then our time as you led us in building SNCC's efforts in San Francisco. Good days, good work. I am proud to have been counted your friend over the years. The best on your 80th birthday. Sorry I can't make it.

Bob and Mary Tripp link

12/23/2016 08:33:50 pm

Bob and Mary Tripp

We go back a long way with you, Mike: we've been friends since we met in New York City in 1958. In all these 58 years through moving various places and children and grandchildren we have never lost touch.

First I want to say this: a major reason that both of us love you, Mike, is that you really have stayed true to your core values. To us that is very important. Unlike some other folks who once considered themselves and were considered by others to be lefty/progressive, and then allowed money or whatever to move them to the right, you, dear friend, stayed true to yourself--as your many years as a community organizer attest.

And withal you also stayed true to and never lost contact with old friends.

During the second half of the 1950s a whole bunch of us Californians migrated to the Big Apple. Mary's and my apartment became a kind of meeting place/hangout. A big reason is that we were the only married couple in our group and were [sort of] settled.

One of my favorite memories of Mike in those days is that he would show up at our apartment on 120th St very early in the morning having dropped off an overnight book at Columbia. When he heard us rattling around he would gently [yes, gently!] knock on the door and join us for breakfast.

We also remember that New Years Eve [1959, we think it was] when a whole bunch of us, led of course by Mike, went to a party somewhere on the West Side at the apartment of some well-known writer or activist. Mary and I have been racking our brains [not so easy at 84 as it once was!] trying to remember at whose apartment it was, but we just are not sure. Maybe you remember, Mike. Anyway, after leaving the party our group started walking around the upper West Side and, as I recall it, came to the edge of Morningside Park and watched the sun rise.

Sadly, for us, we will not be able to be at the Jan 22 party. It is just too much at the moment for us to go back to my beloved home town--much as I wish we could--from Reston in northern Virginia. But we sure as hell will be there in spirit.

With hope for peace and goodness [in spite the horrors of November 8] and mucho love from us, Mike.
Mary and Bob

Robert Linthicum link

12/31/2016 12:16:39 pm

"Whoever pursues justice and kindness will find life, justice and honor" (Proverbs 21:21, ESV).

Thus wrote a Jewish wise man nearly 3,000 years ago in the Hebrew Bible's wisdom literature. It is an amazingly accurate description of who you are, Mike Miller!

Nietzsche once wrote that to change the world required "a long obedience in the same direction." You have lived a lifetime of single-focused commitment to the cause of justice. Whether it was as a student on the Berkeley campus or in SNCC, or later in your organizing work with IAF or OTC, or whether it is today in your writings and mentoring, your life has been epitomized by a "long obedience" to the cause of justice to those most marginalized and exploited by our society.

But there is also another side to your life's contribution, Mike, which endears you to people. You really care about them! The author of the above statement from Proverbs used the Hebrew word "chesedh" for what is translated "kindness". Actually, "chesedh" is essentially untranslatable into English because there is no English equivalent to it. "Chesedh" is God's love for human beings which is lived out by humans to humans. It is God's love translated into human compassion, caring and curiosity about others. That is a trait that you radiate forth to each person with whom you deal, whether it is manifested in affirmation or calling to accountability!

So happy 80th birthday, Mike Miller. Over your 80 years, you have experienced and keep on experiencing "life", "justice" and "honor", because you have been a man who has combined in your person and in your vocation both "chesedh" love and a commitment to justice. As a result, you have blessed my life and the lives of a multitude of people. May you have many more years of blessing us through both whom you are and what you do.

Have a happy 80th birthday. I regret deeply not being able to be there!

1/1/2017 01:55:47 pm

Dear Mike,

When I first met you in Aptos in 1992 I thought to myself, "who's this old guy dating my mom?" That summer, you and I (how do you like that subject pronoun?!) had stubbornly endless paddle-ball rallies on the beach; thousands of unspoken exchanges that eroded most of my skepticism of you (hahaha). It wasn't long after that that I realized we'd hit the mom's-boyfriend jackpot.

The years I spent with you in San Francisco were some of the best of my life.

You have my unconditional gratitude for accepting us as your own kids; loving us, providing for us, listening to us, questioning (and disagreeing with) us, and for embodying such an inspiring standard of personhood.

Happy Birthday!

Love,
AJ

Fred B. Kotler

1/9/2017 04:03:21 pm

There are many ways to gauge the impact of someone’s life and work. Mike Miller’s life and mine intersected when, responding to a Chronicle want ad for “socially-minded activists,” I presented myself, age 22, at Citizens Action League one September day in 1975. A friend brought the notice to my attention. Serendipity. There are a few events in our lives that are truly transformative. This was, for me, certainly one of them.

It was the very definition of contingent employment: if you can raise that $60 quota in four hours of door knocking, you keep $20, then go at it the next day. Thanks to youthful energy and purpose, it worked. Door knocking for dollars then led to house meetings and actions. The start of a most valuable and practical education.

All that I later learned and later practiced, in forty years of organization and education work is rooted in that experience. Working with Mike and the corps of experienced staff organizers, among them Tim Sampson, Pat Jackson, Tom Ramsey, Mike Barnes, and Kim Clerc, changed my life. This was, for me, the utmost good fortune.

Mike and I reconnected a few years ago and a series of phone chats since has been a pleasure. Mike has positively impacted many lives. I am delighted to join with others in recognizing his important and continuing role as practitioner, writer and teacher and salute his lifelong commitment to what in the Jewish tradition is called Tikkun Olam: the “mitzvah”, the charge for action in this life, to heal the world.

Happy 80th birthday, Mike. Carry on.

Michael Myerson

1/15/2017 02:53:23 pm

Happy birthday: here's to the next 20!

Carolyn & Stanley Wiener

1/15/2017 03:03:06 pm

We wish you many more years of good health, strength, hope & love.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Harry Boyte

1/16/2017 06:27:42 am

In 1983, I followed Mike around San Francisco in the early days of the San Francisco Organizing Project, which I wrote about in "Community Is Possible -- Repairing America's Roots" (Harper & Row, 1984). We had a long discussion which impacted my thinking -- though in recent years he says he doesn't agree with the point! He had just talked with someone -- maybe Dick Harmon - about two models of change, the Maoist and the Christian. The Maoist is to surround the cities from the countryside with a vast sea of forces; the Christian was to bubble up everywhere from the catacombs, with an alternative way of being and thinking. Mike and I talked about which would be the path toward broad democratization of power in our age -- and while we both agreed that it's not either/or but both and, it is also "more or less." I'm with the Christians.

Herman Gallegos

1/16/2017 11:58:33 am

Greetings on the occasion of your 80th birthday. I will miss seeing you and being with your many friends gathered to celebrate, not only your birthday but in admiration for all the years you left behind of contagious enthusiasm, and a treasury of hopes helping communities organize for power so that in your own words, "New leaders will arise to better express the constant quest for freedom, equality, community, security, and justice for all."

Congratulations and happy birthday, Mike

In solidarity,

Herman Gallegos

Judy Strain

1/16/2017 12:03:01 pm

Dear Mike,

We met at Wazir's bedside about a year ago. Just making a small donation in his honor, and to support your work and to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Stephen Bingham

1/16/2017 12:06:15 pm

Congrats Mike!

May OTC continue forever!

Jean Hume

1/22/2017 07:15:48 am

Dear Mike,
I have happy memories of the SF Friends of SNCC office in 1965 -1966. Many remarkable people came to the office to talk to you. Cesar Chavez discussed his planned grape boycott. After a concert, Bill Graham talked about opening the Fillmore Auditorium. Saul Alinsky was there, and Bob Moses spoke to all of us. Then there was the Mission Coalition. Your work was constant, and you taught us so much. Happy Birthday.

Sean link

12/28/2020 03:05:43 pm

Hello mate greatt blog post

Author

Mike Miller has had almost 60 years experience as a community organizer. Before founding the ORGANIZE! Training Center in San Francisco in 1972, he was a founding member of SLATE and an SNCC field secretary. In 1967, he directed one of Saul Alinksy's community organizing projects.

"Never let anyone tell you that
what you are doing is insignificant."