Kenneth Michael Miller Jr.1954-2024  

BOISE — Ken Miller, who had a distinguished career as a journalist and environmental activist and in his later years served as a community volunteer, died on August 10. He was 69.

Ken died at his Boise home, several hours after attending the weekly Saturday morning session of his Java Men coffee group. He hardly ever missed the gathering of journalists, an attorney, a scientist and a former state official. He contributed perspectives from his extensive professional travels across the country and the globe on politics and the environment, as well as two of his special interests, baseball and fly fishing trips in Idaho’s mountains.

Ken was born Dec. 15, 1954 in Los Angeles to Dolores (Hagstrom) and Kenneth M. Miller Sr. He grew up in the Los Angeles area and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in political science at Kansas State University. He entertained the Java fellows with his account of interviewing comedian Bob Hope for the student newspaper. He played first base on the college baseball team and remained a faithful Wildcat, often wearing his KSU cap to coffee.

He reported for the Bartlesville, Oklahoma newspaper, and then the Reno Gazette-Journal, the start of a long career with Gannett newspapers. In Nevada, he covered federal courts and organized crime. In Reno he met and married his wife, Ginny Laing. 

He transferred to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, as outer islands reporter, based in Maui. He reported from locales as distant as Guam and the Marshall Islands. In 1988 he covered an inter-island aircraft incident in which a large section of fuselage roof of an Aloha Airlines airliner blew off. The jet made an emergency landing on Maui — on the Millers’ wedding anniversary.

After a few years on Maui, Ken transferred to Gannett News Service in Fairfax, Va, where he became national environmental reporter. He filed reports from around the country, from Alaska to Florida. His subjects ranged from Everglades restoration to toxins in Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Basin. He also covered national politics, including presidential nominating conventions. In 1991, he reported from Kuwait and Iraq on Operation Desert Storm in the first Gulf War, as Scud missiles were flying overhead.

Ken won many awards including two Best of Gannett citations for in-depth reports on judicial corruption and on organized crime in Nevada.

A trip to Idaho to report on the reintroduction of wolves led to his move to the Idaho Statesman, where he covered state government, including the Legislature.

Ken was passionate about protecting the environment. After leaving the Statesman, he worked for a series of non-profits, starting with the Winter Wildlands Alliance, which aims to protect America’s wild snowscapes. He was interviewed on CBS News at a Yellowstone National Park entrance on the effects of snowmobiles on wildlife.

Ken then worked as Idaho energy advocate for the NW Energy Coalition and served as the board chair. He then became the Snake River Alliance’s clean energy program director. While there he wrote an extensive report on damage from coal-fired power plants and testified before the Idaho Public Utilities Commission on energy matters.

In retirement, Ken volunteered for organizations dealing with homelessness and hunger and was a guide at the Idaho Historical Museum. He worked regular shifts at the Interfaith Sanctuary homeless shelter in Boise. He was a volunteer at annual fishing retreats of Idaho2Fly, a men’s cancer support group.

A celebration of life will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 6 at Hillview United Methodist Church, 8525 W. Ustick Road in Boise. A light lunch will follow. 

Ken is survived by his wife Ginny, his sisters Barbara (John) Reed, of Bend, Oregon, and Nancy (Mike) Hathaway, of Rancho Santa Fe, California.He was preceded in death by his parents and step-mother Sally Bellingham, and brother Roger Miller. 

Memorial donations may be made to:

Wassmuth Center for Human Rights,  https://www.wassmuthcenter.org/donate/

Your local food bank

Your local Humane Society

Your local homeless shelter