The Reverend James Robertson Miller (Columbia Presbytery), 82, born July 22, 1937, died January 16, 2020.
Jim was born July 22, 1937, to John Samuel Miller and Annie Elizabeth in Eutaw, Alabama. and grew up in Winchester, Tennessee. His father died in 1940. He was baptized by the Reverend W.B. Spraker at the Winchester Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Elk Presbytery) in 1942., and joined the church.
Jim attended Clark Memorial Elementary School and Franklin County High School in Winchester before enrolling in Bethel College in McKenzie, Tennessee. He graduated from Bethel in 1958. In 1963, he culminated his theological education at Memphis Theological Seminary where his thesis was “The Problems of Religious Freedom in Latin America: with Special Reference to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Colombia.” He attended the Billy Graham School of Evangelism in 1968. He went on to completed a masters degree in education at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, in 1974.
On July 25, 1961, Jim married Carolyn Edith Master of Belvidere, Franklin County, Tennessee. The couple had three children, Carol Diane, Michael Scott, and Brian James.
Jim came under the care of presbytery in 1955, was licensed in 1957, and ordained by Elk Presbytery in 1958. The Reverend S.O. McAdow preached his ordination sermon and the Reverends Ky Curry and E.H. Denman, Jr., delivered the charge.
While a student, Jim served the Belvidere Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Franklin County, Tennessee, from 1956 to 1961. Beginning in 1957, he also supplied Kingdom Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Rockvale, Tennessee. Briefly, in 1961, he served the Nashville churches Edgefield and Brush Hill as Director of Christian Education before being called to the pastorate of Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Virginia, Illinois, where he was pastor until 1967, while also employed as the recreation supervisor for the Jacksonville State Mental Hospital in Illinois. The pastorate of the Monroe City Cumberland Presbyterian Church followed from 1967 to 1969.
Jim moved to Columbia, Tennessee in 1969, to serve the West Point and Santa Fe churches which were yoked as a parish. He served Santa Fe until 1974, and West Point until 1979, when he took on the parish of Chapel Hill and Ash Hill. He served the latter as pastor 40 years. Toward the end of his ministry, he served Belleview Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Franklin, Tennessee.
During his ministry, Jim was a member of Elk, Lincoln-Decatur, Indiana, and Columbia Presbyteries. He served terms as moderator of Lincoln-Decatur, Indiana, and Columbia Presbyteries as well as North Central Synod and Tennessee Synod.
