Dean Leroy Miller Spring Valley, Calif.

Nov. 24, 1934 - Dec. 30, 2016

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Dean Leroy Miller died on Dec. 30, 2016, at the age of 82 surrounded by his son  Dale, his oldest grandson Travis, his oldest daughter Dwauna, and his daughter-in-law Stacy. 

A  celebration of life will be held at Miller Paving Corporation in Spring Valley, Calif., May 21, 2017 at 1 p.m. Dean’s  son and grandson’s will grill out, as Dean would have done for friends and loved ones that  visited. 

Dean was born in Aurora to Vada and William Miller on Nov. 24, 1934. He was the  second child of four children born to his parents. 

He married his lifelong sweetheart, Leolyn Theo Kirby, at the age of 17, while serving in the United States Navy during the Korean War. Dean and Leolyn spent part of the next four years  in Southern California where they were stationed. After being honorably discharged from the  Navy the couple returned to South Dakota. 

Dean had deep roots in farming and for a few  years that’s what the young couple did. Three of their six children were born while they lived  in South Dakota. Dean decided that there were more opportunities to improve their quality of  life in California. The young couple bravely took their three small girls and proceeds from the  sale of the farm (three hundred dollars) to California to make their fortune in 1959.  

Dean was a hard worker, loving husband and father and an excellent provider. By 1964 Dean and Leolyn had six children. Their fourth child, David Dean, died at birth after a complicated delivery. Dean’s desire to provide the best for his family, his honest hard work, pragmatism, and entrepreneurship spurred him to begin Miller & Kirby Paving with his wife and brother-in-law. 

In 1965 Miller Paving Corporation was established. Dean was a fair honest employer that  expected excellence from his employees. Lee took care of the office and bookkeeping. The  business they created continues to provide jobs and work for many families today and is  owned now by their youngest child and only son, Dale Miller.  

Dean and Leolyn moved to Montana for three years to try their hand at ranching in 1973. In later years they built a cabin in Bridger Bowl Montana by Bozeman.   Dean and Leolyn semiretired in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1995 where they built  another home facing Bear Butte. They became gentlemen ranchers and raised a few head of  cattle each year for family and friends. They lived there until 2014 at which time their  disease of vascular dementia/Alzheimer’s prevented them from remaining on their own. They  chose at that time to return to California.   

Dean was preceded in death by his infant sister, mother, father, brother Darrell, his wife Leolyn,  his son David Dean, his grandson Chad, brothers-in-law Robert, Ernest, Bernard and Stanton,  sisters-in-law Marilyn and Jackie. 

He is survived by his sister Darlene, children, Dwauna, Renee, Michele (Bret), Pamela, and Dale (Stacy); eight grandchildren; six great grandchildren;  sister-in-law Maureen (Fred), brother-in-law Allen, sisters-in-law Mavis, Evelyn and Judy; and  many nieces and nephews.