Person Sheet
NameROBERT HENRY MILLER 
Birth20 Sep 1941, SIOUX FALLS, MINNEHAHA, SOUTH DAKOTA
NicknameBOB
FatherHENRY JOHN MILLER (1905-1978)
MotherYVONNE BILLION (1908-1988)
Misc. Notes
Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Feb 2012
Bob Miller has taught history and government for 48 years.
He just hasn’t been in a classroom since 1968.
That’s when Miller first started as a lobbyist with the South Dakota Legislature.
“I’m really doing what I was educated for and hoped to be,” 70-year-old Miller says. “I’m still teaching government, I’m still teaching history, just in a different way, but that’s what I’m doing.”
Miller, a native of Sioux Falls’ north end, graduated from the University of Sioux Falls before taking a job with O’Gorman High School as a teacher and debate coach. Early in his career, he spent a summer selling pianos and organs in a music store — and made more money in those three months than he would in the next nine.
That’s why he was willing to listen when Attorney General Frank Farrar, who was running a successful campaign for governor, proposed that the young teacher join his staff in Pierre.
He would manage the federal programs that sent money to South Dakota and work the legislative halls, promoting Farrar’s proposals to senators and representatives.
It took a fast learning curve, but Miller was up for the challenge.
“Two guys who worked in the (state) highway department were sitting in the gallery watching the Senate, and some guy got up and asked for a personal privilege,” Miller recalls.
“He was told sure, and he said, ‘I’d like to introduce these two guys. They’re over here watching us work; apparently they don’t have much to do in the highway department today.’ So I never sat in the gallery after that.”
A born storyteller, Miller can recount anecdote after anecdote like that.
A lot goes on during the state’s annual legislative sessions, he says. That’s not surprising when you consider this year there are 873 registered lobbyists all promoting or disparaging one of the 473 bills that were filed.
Forty-five years ago, the number of lobbyists was much smaller, and it was almost exclusively a male group.
“That’s one of the changes I’ve seen, women lobbyists,” Miller says. “Women lawyers that work for insurance companies, but the one that surprises you, women lobbying for farm groups. They were one of the first to do it. Farmers Union and Ag Unity, they broke the barrier.”
Bob Miller has taught history and government for 48 years.
He just hasn’t been in a classroom since 1968.
That’s when Miller first started as a lobbyist with the South Dakota Legislature.
“I’m really doing what I was educated for and hoped to be,” 70-year-old Miller says. “I’m still teaching government, I’m still teaching history, just in a different way, but that’s what I’m doing.”
Miller, a native of Sioux Falls’ north end, graduated from the University of Sioux Falls before taking a job with O’Gorman High School as a teacher and debate coach. Early in his career, he spent a summer selling pianos and organs in a music store — and made more money in those three months than he would in the next nine.
That’s why he was willing to listen when Attorney General Frank Farrar, who was running a successful campaign for governor, proposed that the young teacher join his staff in Pierre.
He would manage the federal programs that sent money to South Dakota and work the legislative halls, promoting Farrar’s proposals to senators and representatives.
It took a fast learning curve, but Miller was up for the challenge.
“Two guys who worked in the (state) highway department were sitting in the gallery watching the Senate, and some guy got up and asked for a personal privilege,” Miller recalls.
“He was told sure, and he said, ‘I’d like to introduce these two guys. They’re over here watching us work; apparently they don’t have much to do in the highway department today.’ So I never sat in the gallery after that.”
A born storyteller, Miller can recount anecdote after anecdote like that.
A lot goes on during the state’s annual legislative sessions, he says. That’s not surprising when you consider this year there are 873 registered lobbyists all promoting or disparaging one of the 473 bills that were filed.
Forty-five years ago, the number of lobbyists was much smaller, and it was almost exclusively a male group.
“That’s one of the changes I’ve seen, women lobbyists,” Miller says. “Women lawyers that work for insurance companies, but the one that surprises you, women lobbying for farm groups. They were one of the first to do it. Farmers Union and Ag Unity, they broke the barrier.”
Spouses
Birth31 Jul 1944, SIOUX FALLS, MINNEHAHA, SOUTH DAKOTA
OccupationGOVERNORS SECRETARY
FatherOLAF THOEN
Marriage5 Sep 1964, SIOUX FALLS, MINNEHAHA, SOUTH DAKOTA
ChildrenTHEA MARIE (1966-)
ROBERT HENRY (1969-)