Paul Miller Jr., dedicated family man, entrepreneur and civic leader, passed away on July 14, 2005 at Barnes-Jewish Hospital after a short illness. He was AGE TK.
“My father leaves a substantial legacy,” said his son, Paul Miller III.
“He understood the importance of doing for one’s self. He knew how critical it is to not just save money, but to define one’s own path.”
Miller’s funeral was held on Wednesday at the Central Baptist Church on Washington Avenue in St. Louis.
His business career began during his teens, when he worked side by side with his father, Paul Miller, for Miller and Son’s Beauty Supply Company. He went on to hold numerous other positions, and returned in the 1970s to again work with his father to help the company grow.
Miller was an experienced business consultant, entrepreneur, and investment banker. He was recently named president of Kennedy Capital Management (KCM). He had been a director of KCM since 1998, when he was brought in by co-founder Gerald Kennedy. Miller served for 16 years on the investment committee.
He was founder and president of Stifel International Capital Markets, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corporation, a NYSE-listed financial services firm. Early in his career he worked as a bank examiner for the F.D.I.C.
Upon becoming president of KCM on May 6, Miller resigned as president and CEO of P. L. Miller & Associates, LLC (PLMA), a management consultant firm which provides international business development services and strategic and financial planning for privately held companies. PLMA will continue to function as a financial advisory firm, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, and capital raising (debt and equity) for small to middle-market companies.
As an entrepreneur, Miller held management roles and ownership interests in companies involved in wholesale distribution, banking, cosmetics and beverage manufacturing, computer services, and real estate development. As a consultant, he handled a diverse set of international assignments in 16 countries, including acting as a financial advisor on privatization projects in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Africa.
In the U.S., he provided marketing, consumer research and organizational assessments for a major retailer and two entities responsible for concessions at two major airports.
Miller earned a BS in Accounting from Saint Louis University and an MBA from Washington University, St. Louis. He has also completed executive leadership programs at Stanford University and the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He recently completed corporate governance programs at Columbia University and the Harvard Business School.
Miller served on the boards of Ameren Corporation, the largest electric utility in the state of Missouri, and LMI Aerospace (LMIA – NASD), and in the past has served as an advisory director for several privately held companies. He was a former member of the Advisory Board of Directors of the World Trade Center in St. Louis and a member of the Board of Trustees of Central Baptist Church.
In 2003, he completed 16 years of service as a trustee at Washington University in St. Louis. During his career he served as a statutory board member of five financial institutions, a public television station, and numerous civic and charitable organizations.
“Mr. Miller drew on his vast experience as a respected business consultant to offer excellent advice on a number of business challenges facing the company,” said Ameren Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary L. Rainwater.
“He brought to our company highly valued strategic and financial planning expertise and offered consistently strong counsel for many years as a director.”
Miller told the Post Dispatch last year that “serving on corporate boards has been kind of a natural to me.”
Miller is survived by his wife Karen Frye Miller; five children, Paul III, Stephen and Nicole Miller, and Alison and Ashleigh Harold; two sisters, Ethel Miller and Etta Tucker (John); and a brother, G.W. Miller.
Paul Miller III said he and his brother, Stephen, will continue to pursue their late father’s business interests.
“Our father was very interested in the success of his children and also the many people that he mentored,” he said.
“We plan to move forward, and to work with the people he worked with and that he was a mentor to.”
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Central Baptist Church.
