Family members said it wasn’t unusual for Philip V. Miller to finish up at his day job and head over to a neighbor’s home, where he’d spend hours fixing the plumbing or making electrical repairs. Often he’d accept only a cup of coffee or perhaps gas money in exchange. “He was the most generous, selfless man I’ve ever known,” said his daughter-in-law, Mary. “He did more kind acts in one week than some people do in an entire lifetime.” Mr. Miller, 72, of Batavia, a talented handyman and a former deacon and Sunday school superintendent, died of a brain aneurysm Thursday, Dec. 11, in Delnor-Community Hospital in Geneva. Born in Wheaton and raised in Winfield, Mr. Miller developed a knack for fixing things by helping out around his family’s commercial greenhouse. Later Mr. Miller became a mechanical troubleshooter at Burgess-Norton, a manufacturing company in Geneva. He was employed there for 20 years, retiring at age 46, after heart bypass surgery. Soon after he began serving as a deacon and Sunday school superintendent at Kane County Baptist Church in South Elgin, where he also was a part-time maintenance man. Mr. Miller also spent a good part of his retirement baby-sitting his grandchildren. Other survivors include his wife of 53 years, Helen; two sons, Tom and Joe; four daughters, Marie Hinterlong, Marjorie Smith, Patricia and Shirley Talip; two brothers, David and Bill; a sister, Eleanor Arwood; 15 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Moss Family Funeral Home, 209 S. Batavia Ave., Batavia. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at the funeral home.
