by Ryan Mosher
If there was a teaching Hall of Fame in the Berlin Central School district, the selection committee would have a tough choice to make after this year. Would they make retiring English teacher Bob Miller sit through the normal waiting period before admitting him, or would they waive that rule and allow him to be enshrined right away. Or maybe the only really difficult part would be finding a place to host the ceremony that was big enough to hold everyone who would want to see it.
Since he began teaching at Berlin in 1969, Mr. Miller has taught every seventh grader in the district. He is one of just a few teachers remaining that taught at the seventh grade school in Petersburgh, which is now the town hall. He even taught physical education in the Veteran’s Hall once upon a time. Mr. Miller’s dedication to the district has stretched far beyond the classroom as well. He coached basketball and baseball at Berlin, sharing many stories from those years with his classes along the way.
But Mr. Miller’s support was not limited to Berlin sports teams that he coached. He, along with Mrs. Miller, who retired from teaching seventh grade social studies in the room next to him just a few years ago, was a huge supporter of their own three children’s athletic careers at Berlin. And even after they all graduated, you could still find the Millers sitting close to the action, especially at Berlin soccer games. Their support of Berlin soccer was made especially evident this year with the installation of the scoreboard they donated.
Sports are just a small part of what Mr. Miller is and what he has been to the students who have had him. I think one Mr. Miller moment that all of us remember is the first day of class every year. His gentle tone put us all at ease as he paced up and down the rows of the classroom with a textbook balanced carefully on his hand. And just like that, the book slammed down onto some unsuspecting student’s desk, causing all of us to practically jump out of our chairs, and creating entertaining stories for us to tell our friends in other classes.
Many of us also remember how he turned writing from something we dreaded into a fun and easy task. Who knew that writing a letter asking a celebrity for an autograph could be so educational? Apparently Mr. Miller did. As we wrote our first letter for a grade, it only took one autographed response to turn it from a class assignment into our own hobby. When we were writing those letters, Mr. Miller would always tell us, if you ask the person for an extra one for the classroom, he would hang it up and give you credit for it. It was always cool to have him announce in class that someone had contributed a new photo to the collection.
Mr. Miller always told us that when he retired, he would leave the photos because they belonged to the school. Last week he took down all the photos in his classroom. Final count was over 500 autographs. And true to his word, the photos were distributed throughout the school according to their relevance. It makes me wonder what school department got the autograph of super model Christie Brinkley that I contributed to the collection so many years ago?
Now that he’s retired, Mr. Miller won’t really slow down. He has taken on a new job with the Tri-City Valley Cats. As an usher at Joe Bruno Stadium he will get to see all of the Valley Cats home games and even get paid to be there. When he told his father about the new job, his immediate response was, “Are they going to let you pitch?” The question got a good laugh, but little did either of them know, the Valley Cats would let him pitch. Kind of.
In a plan put together by his seventh grade teaching colleagues, Mr. Knightes and Mrs. Vanderhoef, Mr. Miller was given the honor of throwing out the first pitch at Sunday afternoon’s, June 28, Valley Cats game against
the Vermont Lake Monsters. It was supposed to be a surprise, but it is hard to keep something this exciting from getting out in a small town like Berlin. While Mr. Miller did find out ahead of time about the first pitch, he had no clue of the fanfare that would come with it. Prior to the game, a delegation of over fifty students, former students, fellow teachers, family and friends gathered under the pavilion at the stadium to celebrate Mr. Miller’s retirement with a picnic.
I stood on the dirt just outside the Valley Cats dugout with Mr. Miller as he waited to be introduced to the large crowd. For the first time in my life, I saw him not completely at ease. He told me that he just didn’t want to throw the pitch in the dirt. I assured him that it would be okay even if he did, because it’s not like he had to go back to the school and listen to any kids pick on him about it. As Mr. Miller made his way to the pitcher’s mound and the announcer introduced him, I made my way past the home team’s dugout so that I could capture his big debut pitch. When the announcer said that he had retired after forty years of teaching, and had taught every seventh grader in Berlin since 1969, in the corner of my eye I caught the mouths of several Valley Cats players drop in awe, while others turned to see him take the mound. With the end of the introduction, Mr. Miller gave a wave to the crowd, especially the very loud section 220 where his fans stood to cheer him on, and he delivered a perfect pitch to the plate.
