Viola Chess Miller was born May 22, 1930 in San Marino, California to parents Dr. and Mrs. James M. Chess.  She died March 3, 2013 at age 82.  Viola is survived by husband Cdr. John R. Miller, US Navy (Ret); daughters, Victoria Kight and Linda Thomas of Albuquerque; son, Kurt Miller; granddaughter, Jennifer; and two great-granddaughters, Evelyn and Genevieve of California; and sister, Linda Chess Moriarty (SPHS '50).

Vi was a 1948 graduate of South Pasadena - San Marino High School and a 1952 graduate of the University of New Mexico where she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma fraternity in 1949.  Upon graduation, Viola and John were married in Santa Fe, New Mexico and she began her 26 year career as a Navy wife which took them to Hawaii, Virginia, and various California port cities.  John's Navy retirement brought them back to Albuquerque in 1978.  During the years following she was a member and one-time chairman of the Albuquerque Open Space program and was very involved in the effort to acquire and establish the Elena Gallegos recreation park and to protect the Westside escarpment from development.  She continued her fraternity affiliation after graduation as an active alumna.

Her lifetime interest in music led her to a longtime membership in the UNM University Chorus.  Not to be overlooked was her oil and watercolor painting, poetry writing, and a variety of social activities, both personal and church-related.  The world and her community in it have lost a good person.  Her family has lost a loving, faithful, protective, forgiving, and sincere Rock of Gibraltar upon whom we all depended.

Albuquerque Journal, March 10, 2013