DENNY MILLER
(April 25, 1934 – September 9, 2014)
A
great soul walked among us for 80 years until he died of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The disease is always fatal, and no cure has ever been discovered.
This is especially sad because Denny Miller devoted many years of his life
teaching health care and giving physical therapy lessons at college campuses
and nursing homes for the elderly. He knew what makes healthy bodies,
and was pioneer in home health education videos with his 1983 videotape
entitled “Homestretch: How to Relax with Denny Miller.” Only the
unsolved mystery of Lou Gehrig’s disease brought him down. Denny
kept his spirits and his hopes high during his illness, asking me not to
tell anyone in case he recovered. He was even able to speak to me from
his sickbed on several occasions. His beloved wife Nancy, also friend to
all of us, never left his side.
We knew Denny as “Tarzan the Ape Man” in 1959, along
his roles in 19 other films, over 200 guest appearances on TV, and 37 commercials,
including “Bounty” and “Gorton’s Fisherman.” But mostly we knew Denny
for his great sense of humor. Good examples of his humor fill his
book “Didn’t you used to be…What’s His Name?” published ten years
before his death. Denny read books constantly and, whenever he found
something funny, would dash to his computer and send it to his many friends.
Denny was proud of and loyal to his many friends in
the Burroughs Bibliophiles, and was a guest at many Dum-Dums and annual
conventions over the years, so we were glad to have him on our side.
But he is now on another side, leaving us a flood of memories behind.
He was cremated, so those who wish to make donations to his memory can
do so with a gift to fight Lou Gehrig’s disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)
in care of THE ALS ASSOCIATION, 1275 K Street, NW, Suite 250, Washington,
DC, 20005. Donations are also gratefully received at the Burroughs
Memorial Collection at the University of Louisville Library in honor of
Denny’s memory.
~ George T. McWhorter, Curator Emeritus
Edgar Rice Burroughs Memorial Collection
University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
