CHARLES F. MILLER, LTJG, USN

Charles Miller '25

Date of birth: November 6, 1902

Date of death: April 4, 1933

Age: 30

Lucky Bag

From the 1925 Lucky Bag:

Charles Frank Miller

Staten Island, New York

"Nick" "Charlie"

THE above picture is the one that girls have cried over and mothers have sighed over. We ordinary mortals—yes, we poor fellows have always felt just a little bit jealous of the owner of that engaging countenance. Nick grew up in the wooden solitude of Staten Island and there developed a silent, thoughtful nature, but the reaction upon entering the Academy was too much for our lissome Apollo. Now he talks all day and night—he not only talks but being of a musical nature plays upon a whistle and sings until strangled by the gang of his deck. Many soulful and awe-inspiring dirges have been cut short by Nick's wish to air his views on the relative advantage of dragging a heavyweight or a lightweight to the hop. He is a scholar and all that goes with it; a mathematician with no fears of formulae, a musician with soul of fire, an athlete with brains.

"Who's got a skag?"

"I established my queen and jack of diamonds anyway."

Class Soccer (4); Varsity Soccer (3, 2, 1); aNf (3, 2); Block N; Captain Soccer (1).

Charles Frank Miller

Staten Island, New York

"Nick" "Charlie"

THE above picture is the one that girls have cried over and mothers have sighed over. We ordinary mortals—yes, we poor fellows have always felt just a little bit jealous of the owner of that engaging countenance. Nick grew up in the wooden solitude of Staten Island and there developed a silent, thoughtful nature, but the reaction upon entering the Academy was too much for our lissome Apollo. Now he talks all day and night—he not only talks but being of a musical nature plays upon a whistle and sings until strangled by the gang of his deck. Many soulful and awe-inspiring dirges have been cut short by Nick's wish to air his views on the relative advantage of dragging a heavyweight or a lightweight to the hop. He is a scholar and all that goes with it; a mathematician with no fears of formulae, a musician with soul of fire, an athlete with brains.

"Who's got a skag?"

"I established my queen and jack of diamonds anyway."

Class Soccer (4); Varsity Soccer (3, 2, 1); aNf (3, 2); Block N; Captain Soccer (1).

Loss

Charles was lost when the airship USS Akron (ZRS 4) crashed off the coast of New Jersey on April 4, 1933.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

His father was Frank, a chauffeur for an oil company. His mother was the former Elisabeth Grossmann who was born in Germany in 1881 and came to the U.S. in 1883. His sister was Helen Ida who was 14 months older than Charles. His parents married in Manhattan on 7/24/1900, and in the 1910 census, the family lived at 279 Maujer Street in Brooklyn.

Photographs

From the Daily News on April 5, 1933.

Video

Akron's executive officer, LCDR Herbert V. Wiley '15, one of only three survivors, was filmed shortly after the crash:

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.