David Miller:
CLASS OF 1960
Spring Valley High SchoolClass of 1960
Spring valley, NY
David's Story
I've started this profile several times and each time it gets to be so long and depressing I quit and start over. I'll try to summarize as much as possible and still make sense. As they say on resumes: "further details available upon request." I completed my first year at RPI majoring in Architecture in June 1961. Since my father and I couldn't afford to send me back in September, I went to work as a draftsman to raise the money for the following year. Unfortunately my father died of a brain aneurism in December 1961 without insurance or owning a home, so I was flat broke. My mother who had been a housewife went to live with my aunt upstate and work as a chambermaid and I went to work in New York City as an architectural draftsman. I got married in 1964 and in 1966 returned for another semester at RPI. My wife went to work full time and I attended RPI full time and worked 4 hours a night in Albany. She tired of this routine and quit her job so I had to drop out again and return to work in New York City. We moved to Troy, N.Y. in 1970 and got divorced in 1971. I got married again in 1974 and in 1979 qualified through experience to take my Architectural License Exam which I passed. I worked as a Project Architect for small offices in the Albany area until 1985 when I got an offer to be an associate in an office in Kingston and design the Ulster County Mental Health Building. Unfortunately, the office ran low on work after that project was completed so I went back to work in Albany. In 1988 I started my own small office in Kingston designing hazardous material removal in school buildings and related reconstruction. Unfortunately, the Recession of 1992 caused me to close my office and go back to work in Albany. I used every penny I had to try to save the office and ended up in debt to IRS without enough money to hire a lawyer. I started making installment payments in 1993 and finally finished after interest and penalties in 2011. I lost my house to foreclosure in 1995 and had to move into an apartment in Troy where my wife and I still reside. In 2000 I got a job as a Sr. Architect with a firm in Albany but when they were bought out in 2...Expand for more
004 I was laid off. I couldn't find a job in Architecture so I took one with a friend of mine who was a General Construction contractor as a field manager for school and hospital projects. He ran out of work for me in November 2010 and I have been unemployed ever since. That's it for the bad news.
The good news is that some decisions I made did work out well. I took up golf in 1970 and selected PGA pro Gary Player as my mentor. I began a diet and exercise program that I have maintained it to this day. My doctor says I'm so healthy I will probably live to be 100. This is good because there's a lot more I would like to accomplish. I got my handicap down to single figures and even qualified to play a round in Ocean City, MD with Gary Player in 1993. I still play frequently although my handicap has slipped to a 14. My two sons from my second marriage, Eric 34 and Gary 27, are both employed full time and finishing up their degrees part-time in Graphic design and MBA respectively. I have a nine year old granddaughter who is an absolute delight. She thinks I can do no wrong, will do whatever I ask without question or complaint, and thinks I know everything. I'm sure that will change by the time she turns thirteen. I have no intention of ever retiring, even if I could afford to do so. As I told my doctor, Architects have a tradition, you keep working until your're face down on the board. I have decided to make a career change and become a college professor or instructor of some kind and teach Architecture from then on. To do that I'll need at least a Master's Degree so I've been accepted to return to college full time at SUNY Delhi in the Fall of 2012 as a junior in the Bachelor of Architectural Technology program. After that I plan to attend the University of Texas Arlington to get my Masters and the University of Texas Austin to get my PhD. When my father couldn't afford to send me back to RPI he made me promise that I would return to college and get my degree as soon as i could afford to. No matter how long it takes and what little else I may have accomplished, I will keep that promise or die trying.
Regards to all,
Dave Miller
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