For late Daily Press sports editor Skip Miller, life was about ‘keeping the good stuff’

Because he spent most of his more than four decades as a reporter or editor in sports, Skip Miller would’ve appreciated the description of player’s coach. Or writer’s editor. Or, most of all, friend.

Miller, who died earlier this month at 73, epitomized those roles to many who worked for and with him. He did so, they say, with a love and seriousness for the craft of writing, mixed with a free spirit expressed in his joy of music, literature and fishing.

Miller is best remembered in Hampton Roads for his almost 20 years with the Daily Press, where he twice headed the sports department. He also worked for the Syracuse Herald-Journal, Fayetteville Observer and Virginian-Pilot and authored several books, the popular 1993 publication “Tidewater Fishing” among them.

Raised in upstate New York, where he played football for Cortland High, the quote accompanying Miller’s senior photo reflects his idiosyncratic, witty personality: “A lot of poet, a bit philosopher, a lot of protoplasm.”

He gravitated to Greenwich Village soon after high school, tuned guitars, listened to the blues, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, and attended the famed 1969 music festival at Woodstock. He also indulged his passion for the writing of Hemingway, Thoreau, Emerson and Elmore Leonard.

“Skip loved nothing more than going to have a beer and shooting a few games of 9-ball after deadline,” said David Teel, a Daily Press sports writer for 35 years, now at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “But he had eclectic tastes in music and literature and was incredibly well-read.

“He was so well-read that, although it wasn’t intentional by him, you would feel inferior just because you hadn’t consumed all the varied novels and non-fiction that Skip had.”

Miller would bring his love of life, literature and sports to journalism as the Daily Press sports editor. He succeeded legendary Charlie Karmosky in that job in 1983 and made some of the most iconic hires in department history.

Teel, Dave Fairbank, Sonny Dearth and Dave Johnson each wrote for the paper for more than three decades. Warner Hessler earned widespread area notoriety for his coverage of the Washington Redskins for 21 years, similar to Norm Wood’s tenure covering Virginia Tech’s football team and UVA men’s basketball.

All thrived under Miller’s guidance, often because he encouraged them to take chances.

When Miller told Fairbank he’d be covering the 1986 Bears-Patriots Super Bowl, the incredulous young reporter said, “Skip, I’ve only ever covered one NFL game in my life.”

Miller replied, “Yeah, but it was a good one.”

“Skip was always very generous with telling stories and offering advice,” Fairbank said. “His greatest strength was that he guided people, rather than bossing them around.

“When I would shut up and listen, I always learned something from him.”

Miller sent Wood, a year out of college, to Cuba in 1999 with the Hampton Christian Academy baseball team — one of the first American sports teams allowed on the communist island in the four decades after Fidel Castro seized power.

“It’s hard to imagine a better person to serve as your boss in the very earliest days of your professional career,” said Wood, who would go on to cover Virginia’s 2019 NCAA men’s basketball national championship run for the Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot. “He had more confidence in me when I was 23 than I had any right to expect.”

Johnson, who was also hired by Miller immediately out of college (Virginia Tech), echoed Wood.

“Skip had high expectations for you and there was no accepting a lack of effort,” he said. “I admired how he could separate telling us something we didn’t like, but, when the day was over, he’d go have a beer with us.”

Fairbank said, “He was a terrific boss, a great storyteller, a good mentor and a friend.”

Dedicated as he was to his craft, Miller never allowed work to keep him from enjoying life. His love of fishing indirectly spawned two marriages.

Miller’s decision to leave work to fish 37 years ago this weekend sent unhappy reporter Al Pearce to Williamsburg and a press conference promoting a women’s pro tennis event. Pearce met William & Mary women’s sports information director Francie Bobbie — now his wife of 36 years — at the event.

Jessica Miller Smith says that 20 years ago one of her male co-workers was impressed to learn not only did she fish, but that Skip Miller was her dad. “My father and I both have copies of ‘Tidewater Fishing,’” Steve Smith told Samantha. They went fishing on one of their earliest dates and have been married for 18 years.

Miller’s greatest passion was his family: wife Sandy, children Jessica, Shane and Brent and grandchildren McCarthy, Michael and Jeremy. The “countless writings and a pot full of manuscripts” he left them reflect a philosophy of life the writers he mentored will find familiar.

“He taught us to keep the good stuff and trash the rest,” Jessica said. “This is perhaps the best notion of his legacy.

“In writing, work and life — which were pretty much all the same to him — ‘keep the good stuff.’”

Note: A memorial for Skip Miller will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday at W.J. Smith and Son Funeral Home at 210 Harpersville Road in Newport News.