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50 years of service
Published November 21, 2009
“I’m kinda speechless,” said Sand Mountain Reporter production manager Ronald Miller, after he unexpectedly received recognition for his 50 years of employment during the paper’s annual Thanksgiving luncheon Thursday.
Miller, obviously affected emotionally, said, “I was completely surprised they would do something like this. I just feel real honored they would recognize me for all the years I’ve been here.”
The fact a number of his family were sneaked in under his nose to celebrate the moment added to his surprise.
November 1959 was a pivotal moment in the life of Miller and The Reporter. As a Boaz High School senior, he began working part-time for the newspaper that year, performing whatever task assigned to him, whether it was working in the mailroom or photographic platemaking, before becoming a full-time employee on Nov. 21.
Miller, now 69, tall, angular, with white hair and a quiet disposition, was the third of six children born “just below Boaz in Etowah County,” to Cephas and Esther Miller on Aug. 4, 1941.
His curiosity as to “how they were able to get the pictures in the newspaper” peaked his interest and unknowingly set his course in life.
“My memories of the paper when I started out were that the press, the mailroom, the paper storage and the plate making area were all in one room at the old location [at the offices of radio station WAVU, on U.S. 431]. We did it all in the one room, except the offices and composing were connected elsewhere in the building,” Miller said.
Today’s technology is a far cry from the days when the paper was published, primarily by hand, in one open room,to the modern computerized equipment used by The Reporter, on Progress Drive, today.
As the veteran employee, who “might go another year before retiring to travel with his wife, Glenda, looks back on a half-century’s work, of most importance to him is the thought “Maybe I helped someone else get started in this business.”
Miller added, “It’s been a lot of hard work, and we’ve gone through a lot of stuff. You could never tell people all the things we’ve been involved in and printed over the years – no way.”
In conclusion, when asked to provide one word defining his 50 years experience, he said, “Great. It’s been great.”
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