Henry S. Miller Jr. has a prominent place among business and community leaders in Dallas, helping carry on the real estate company of his father, Henry S. Miller Sr., a company that is nearly a century old. The Henry S. Miller Company was founded in 1914, and has grown since that time from a small, local real estate firm into the largest establishment in the state of Texas specializing in real estate brokerage services.
Henry S. Miller Jr. attended Southern Methodist University, a 1934 business graduate with a B.S. degree. He joined his father’s company in 1938 after working in the insurance business; he later became owner of an insurance firm and brought it into the Miller real estate company. Miller served in the U.S. Army during World War II from 1942 until 1945, seeing action in both North Africa and Italy, and rising to the rank of Major by the time his service was finished.
His wife, Helen Juanita Lewis, was born in 1912 in Kiowa, Oklahoma. She attended the University of Oklahoma, and taught at both the high school and junior college level. She first met Miller while working at a center in Arkansas for returning World War II servicemen. Lewis and Miller were married in 1945 until her death in November 2005. The Millers had four children: Vance, Patsy, Henry III, and Jacqueline.
Henry and Juanita Miller were patrons of the arts in Dallas. Juanita Miller helped found the Dallas opera; she and her husband also provided the new organization with a $200,000 loan to ensure financial support during its early years. In addition, she founded the Texas Women’s Association for Symphony Orchestras, currently the Texas Association for Symphony Orchestras. She was also involved in the Dallas Ballet, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League, the Dallas Theatre Center, and the Dallas Museum of Art. Mrs. Miller’s arts activities were not limited to Dallas; she also supported cultural and artistic endeavors in Fort Worth and Richardson.
The original partnership between Henry Miller, Jr. and his father was incorporated in 1960, whereupon Miller Jr. became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. As such, he built upon the work his father started by expanding company operations into the areas of property management, office and retail properties, and specialized real estate services. He also expanded the corporation’s insurance business in 1968 by establishing a partnership with insurance businessman James B. Strange. By this period, the Miller family oversaw several firms under the purview of the Henry S. Miller Company: Henry S. Miller Co., Insurance; Henry S. Miller Co., Realtors; and Henry S. Miller Management Corp.
Vance C. Miller became President in 1970, and the company’s holdings continued to expand through the next two decades. The company merged in 1984 with another firm, thus forming the third largest real estate corporation in the United States; this lasted until 1991, when the Miller family reacquired Henry S. Miller Co., Realtors with offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin. Today, Miller Jr. serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Henry S. Miller Companies, and Henry S. Miller Interests, Inc. He is also Managing Partner of Highland Park Village and Preston Royal Shopping Center, both in Dallas.
As these papers attest, Miller Jr. has been highly involved in civic affairs within the city of Dallas, as well as within the SMU community. He served as president of the National Alumni Association for SMU, having been elected to that position in 1968; prior to that, he worked as the NAA’s vice president for administration and budget. He has also served as the president of both the Dallas Rotary Club and the Southern Methodist University School of Business Alumni Association. In addition, Miller is a member of the board of governors for the American Society of Real Estate Councilors, the Dallas Citizens Council, the Dallas Metropolitan YMCA, the Better Business Bureau, and the SMU Board of Development.
He has also received recognition for his work in furthering the arts in Dallas, especially the Dallas Opera. Honors bestowed upon him include the 1982 Dallas Historical Society Award for Contribution to the Arts, induction into the Texas Business Hall of Fame in 1988, a 1978 Distinguished Alumnus Award from SMU, and the Outstanding Business Leader Award from the Northwood Institute in 1982.
Juanita Miller received recognition for her arts-related work, including a 1986 James (Jas.) K. Wilson Award (see Box 4, Folder 19), a Woman of the Year Award from Les Femmes du Monde in 1999, and the Dallas Historical Society Award for Excellence in the Arts. Both Mrs. Miller and her husband were also awarded honorary doctorates from Northwood University. She also served as president of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League, vice president of the Dallas Ballet, and board member for the Dallas Theater Center and the Dallas Opera.
Sources:
http://www.henrysmiller.com/history/
"Juanita Miller: Championed arts, helped husband build real estate powerhouse."
"Miller, Juanita Lewis 93, died November 21, 2005."
"Dr. Juanita Miller," Northwood University website.
The collection covers the various arts and civic activities that Henry and Juanita Miller were involved in from the 1950s through the 1990s. Although Henry Miller was best known as a prominent Dallas businessman, especially in the Dallas real estate market, the collection generally is not concerned with his business affairs (except for Series 5). Some personal documents, including letters and other records from both Millers’ service during World War II are also included (in Series 8).
The collection is arranged into nine series. The first several are divided topically, and concern Dallas civic and arts affairs of the Millers: establishment of the Dallas Opera and the Dallas Symphony, for example. The last series (Series 9) contains newspaper articles from the 1940s until 1999. These are arranged by year. While the contents of each of these folders are not specifically noted, they mostly highlight various social events which the Millers (and often Juanita Miller) took part in, or any instances in which the Millers were mentioned in the press.
The collection is organized into 9 series:
This is one of the collections in the Archives of Women of the Southwest.
For additional material pertaining to the Miller family, see the Jack Miller papers (A2004.0001).
Collection is open for research use.
Permission to publish materials must be obtained from the Director of the DeGolyer Library.
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright authorization.
This collection is indexed under the following terms in the Southern Methodist University Libraries' online catalog. Researchers desiring related materials may search the catalog using these terms.
Juanita and Henry S. Miller Jr. papers, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.
Gift, Henry S. Miller, Jr., 2001.
Finding aid written by Paul H. Santa Cruz, 2007-2008.
Lara Corazalla, 2007-2008.
This series includes material ranging from about 1958 until the late 1980s.
NOTE: Also see Series 3: Symphony Materials, in Box 3, Folders 1-16.
This series includes materials on fund drives, auditions, and correspondence regarding the establishment and later activities of the Dallas Opera.
This series includes materials on the creation of the Dallas Symphony and construction of the Meyerson Symphony Center.
NOTE: Also see "Dallas Symphony Orchestra—Press and Publicity" in Series 1: Dallas Civic Activities—Box 1, Folder 22
This series covers various Dallas arts issues including files specifically on the Dallas Ballet and Dallas Theatre Center.
The papers in this series cover some of the business-related activities of Henry S. Miller, roughly from the 1950s through the 1970s. Included are copies of letters regarding the purchase and/or transfer of stock from the Henry S. Miller Company, as well as consent forms and shareholder agreements. Several legal records are also included that document land purchases among Miller Jr. and Trammell Crow. This series also contains news articles on various real estate activities around Dallas, as well as copies of
NOTE: Also see "Business Correspondence," in Series 7: Correspondence—Box 7, Folder 2
Most of the correspondence in this series is personal and/or related to Henry S. Miller civic and political activities, mostly dating from the 1950s through the 1980s. The first folder contains political correspondence, and holds letters and thank-you cards from various national and state political figures, including Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, Texas Governors Dolph Briscoe and Bill Clements, and other leaders such as Senators Bob Dole and Lloyd Bentsen, and Dallas Mayors Earle Cabell and Starke Taylor.
The business correspondence included in this series is comprised mostly of thank-you letters and greetings from Dallas business figures, including Trammell Crow and Roger Staubach (also of Dallas Cowboys fame). Most of the international correspondence is also made up of thank-you letters from personal friends of the Millers; copies of letters from the Millers to their friends are also included.
This series contains the oldest papers of the collection, and do not pertain to any of the later business or civic activities of Henry and Juanita Miller. Both of the Millers joined the armed services during World War II. Included are army correspondence and official documents, as well as materials from Miller’s service in the National Guard during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Juanita served in the army’s Special Services Branch, and records and materials from her service in Arkansas are here also. Materials relating to Jack Miller (brother of Henry S. Miller Jr.), who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and was killed in 1942 in the Pacific Theatre, are also included, as are copies of both Henry and Jack Miller’s correspondence during the war years.
Most of the newspaper clippings are from Dallas newspapers from the 1940s through the late 1990s, and report the civic activities of the Millers, but are more related to Juanita Miller. Because the collection ends in 1999, there are no clippings that mention her death in 2005.