Harold Miller, 93, probation official

Harold G. Miller, 93, of Wyncote, who retired in 1979 as a hearing examiner for the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, died of cancer Friday, July 27, at Abington Memorial Hospital.

Mr. Miller was the first African American to serve as a district director and as a regional director for that agency, granddaughter Tory Harris said in an interview.

After working as a Pennsylvania Department of Welfare caseworker for two years, Mr. Harris was on the probation board for 30 years, Harris said.

Mr. Miller became the first African American president of the Middle Atlantic States Correctional Association in 1972, Harris said, and was president of the Pennsylvania Association of Probation, Parole, and Corrections in 1975-76.

In 1988, Mr. Miller's 50-year history of the mid-Atlantic association was published by the organization, of which he became its first president emeritus in 1998, Harris said.

Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Miller graduated from Overbrook High School in 1937 and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at Wilberforce (Ohio) University in 1941.

A cofounder in 1945 of the Philadelphia chapter of the Wilberforce University Alumni Association, he was given the group's distinguished service award and was inducted in 1999 into Wilberforce's national alumni hall of fame.

While with the probation board, Harris said, Mr. Miller was an instructor in criminal justice at Temple University from 1969 to 1979. For a time, he also was a criminal justice instructor at Villanova University.

Mr. Miller was a charter member of the Men's Social Service Organization at the Krams Avenue branch of the Salvation Army in Manayunk and became its first president.

He was a commissioner of the Boy Scouts' William Penn District and a committee member of the scout troop at St. Andrew's-in-the-Field Episcopal Church in Somerton.

The United Negro College Fund and its Philadelphia Inter-Alumni Council gave him the James E. Stamps Award in 2000. And the Leadership Conference of his Omega Psi Phi Fraternity honored him for 70 years of service.

In addition to his granddaughter, Mr. Miller is survived by wife Genester; son Harvey; daughter Consuelo Miller; stepsons the Rev. John S. Wilson Jr. and Lucas Wilson; stepdaughters Genester Wilson-King and Adrienne Hubbard; three other granddaughters; and seven great-grandchildren. His first wife, Consuelo, died in 1991.

A memorial service was set for 11 a.m. Monday, Aug. 6, at the Second Baptist Church of Germantown, Germantown Avenue at Upsal Street.