Maj. Arvil Wayne Miller, USAF Retired, named "Ambrose" in Eastern Orthodox Christian Baptism, reposed peacefully in the Lord in Fayetteville, Georgia on August 9th, 2019, at the age of 85.

Arvil Miller is survived by his wife, Kay Lynn Miller of Fayetteville, Georgia; his two sons, Murice Arvil Miller II of Suches, Georgia, & Hierodeacon Parthenios Miller (aka Channing Molloy Miller) of the Monastery of Saint Dionysios the Areopagite ROCOR, Saint James, New York; and his younger brother, Murice Arlan "Pete" Miller of Paris, Texas. He is preceded in death by his father, Murice Arvil Miller I, and his mother, Rose Agnes Miller, of Paris, Texas.

Arvil was born on January, 1934 in a small farm house in Mosley, Red River County, Texas, and grew up cattle ranching and farming, initially learning to read and write from his paternal grandfather, Pete Miller, who lived with the family for the first 14 years of Arvil's life (and proved to be the single most lasting influence on Arvil throughout his lifetime, until the very end).

Around the time he graduated from High School, and before entering the Air Force Pilot Training Program, Arvil began flying (even purchasing, assembling and repairing) airplanes together with his first cousin, Isaac Newton Burchinal (nicknamed "Junior"), having logged 440 hours of flying time even prior to entering the Air Force.

Arvil's military service in the USAF Strategic Air Command and the Tennessee Air National Guard (first as a Midair-Refueling Tanker pilot, then as a Troop Carrier, and then as a Transport pilot) granted him experiences of the world and other people that would become in Arvil's hands the stuff of story and legend, for Arvil was known to most people principally as a storyteller: whether stories of Arvil's own troubled but successful birth through Pa Miller's ceaseless prayers, his endless love for his family members and their land and wildlife and plantlife and traditions, stories of 19th century ancestors who settled in Texas back when it was its own country (or in Oklahoma Indian Territory for a time), stories of farm life and cattle raising, even blood-thirsty and land-hungry neighbours jumping out of trees with swords and

knives, or military stories of his surviving a mid-air collision, serving in the extreme cold of Goose Bay Labrador, spending his free time with the beef butchers and veterinarians of the Azores, inspecting cattle in England (and even acting as an art purchaser for a dealer), an off-hours personal tour of the famous sword forges of Toledo, Spain, or accounts of flying four missions with helicopter gunship escorts in and out of Vietnam during the war, or his account of praying for his two infant sons in the Orthodox Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem at the Tomb of the Lord Jesus, or asking the person he just met for their family stories, to learn about their traditions, and often just to learn whether or not they were long lost relatives (and sometimes they were).

After his East Texas State College and Memphis State University baccalaureate work (which were intertwined with his military years, active or reserve), Arvil became a civilian pilot with Eastern Air Lines and was soon transferred to Atlanta, where he immediately met and soon thereafter married the Eastern Air Lines stewardess, Kay Lynn Adkins, on October 31, 1968 – the wedding being conducted by a one-armed, prison-chaplain pilot (a friend of Arvil's) in a DC-3, while flying over Atlanta – and they together had two sons, Murice and Channing, and spent their lives and efforts raising them to believe in and follow Jesus Christ. In 2008, on Long Island, Arvil was baptized and chrismated as an Eastern Orthodox Christian and given the Baptismal name "Ambrose".

An Orthodox Christian Funeral Service, followed by Burial in the Monastery Cemetery and a "Potluck" Mercy Meal, is scheduled for Wednesday, August 14, at 2PM, at the Monastery of the Glorious Ascension, 5052 South Dixie Hwy, Resaca, Georgia 30735. All are welcome to attend and celebrate Ambrose's life and offer prayers for his repose. Archimandrite Maximos Weimar & Hierodeacon Parthenios Miller will officiate.

In lieu of flowers, Mrs. Kay Miller asks that you mail tax-deductible donations to:

Monastery of the Glorious Ascension, P.O. Box 397, Resaca, GA, 30735-0397

Please visit our website at www.pondersfuneralhome.com to share condolences with Mr. Miller's family.

Arrangements by locally owned and operated Ponders Calhoun Chapel, Calhoun, GA. (706)625-7577 "Funerals, Cremations, Cemeteries, Florists" YOUR SELECTED INDEPENDENT FUNERAL HOME"