[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 44 (Thursday, March 5, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S1591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING BOBBY MILLER

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, Vermont has lost one of the finest people 
we have had in our State. Bobby Miller epitomized the very best of 
Vermont ideals, from his childhood straight through all that he 
accomplished in our State. Throughout it all, he and his lovely wife 
Holly were a constant, quiet source of giving. The Millers have always 
prioritized Vermont communities, never losing sight of their humble 
upbringings and never expecting praise for their philanthropy, even 
when they most deserved it. I know Marcelle and I join with all 
Vermonters in mourning the passing of Bobby Miller. Our hearts go out 
to Holly and their family.
  I ask unanimous consent that the article, ``Developer and 
Philanthropist Robert `Bobby' Miller Dies at 84,'' originally published 
by ``Seven Days,'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    [From Seven Days, Feb. 5, 2020]

     Developer and Philanthropist Robert `Bobby' Miller Dies at 84

       Vermont lost one of its most generous--and colorful--
     philanthropists on Tuesday, February 4, when developer Robert 
     ``Bobby'' Miller died of a heart attack, at the age of 84.
       A self-made man who grew up dirt poor in Rutland, Miller 
     gave away millions to Vermont nonprofits in cash donations 
     and in-kind work through his company, REM Development. He and 
     his wife, Holly, who survives him, contributed to the King 
     Street Center, Champlain College, the Visiting Nurse 
     Association, the VNA Respite House, Flynn Center for the 
     Performing Arts and many other local organizations. Their 
     2013 contribution to the University of Vermont Medical Center 
     was valued at $13 million.
       Miller invented himself. With just a high school education, 
     and a winning combination of charm and audacity, he worked 
     his way up through the building industry in Vermont. Despite 
     losing an arm at birth, he became an auto mechanic, then 
     convinced a Burlington engineering firm to hire him as a 
     draftsman. After learning on the job, he started New England 
     Air Systems in 1972. Twelve years later, he sold the business 
     to his employees. ``It gets companies spread out to people 
     who would never own them,'' he told me when I profiled the 
     Millers 20 years ago in Seven Days. He started REM 
     Development in 1984. Although it is based in Chittenden 
     County, the company also built, bought and rehabbed 
     properties in downtown Newport and Rutland.
       Despite his financial success, Miller was not a typical 
     businessman. He preferred verbal agreements to written ones 
     and engaged in all manner of creative financing to spark 
     economic development. He happily rented office space to Seven 
     Days when the paper started in 1995--a windowless room in the 
     basement of his building, Miller's Landmark, at the top of 
     Burlington's Church Street. He suggested we pay $300 a month 
     for the first year and, if Seven Days were still in business 
     at the end of it, we could pay him the difference between 
     that sum and the real rent--aka a balloon payment.
  (At the request of Mr. McConnell, the following statement was ordered 
to be printed in the Record.)

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