In memory of our dearest friend, Lisa Miller
(2 October 1944-16 June 2010)
Lisa Miller, who played a prominent role in Metro Hort Group, an association of horticultural professionals in the tri-state area, for more than two decades, died in New York on June 16, 2010, following a long and valiant struggle with cancer. She was supported in her last months by a large and devoted circle of family and friends who traveled long distances to be with her in Evanston, Ill., where she underwent treatment for several months, and finally at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx.
Born in 1944, she grew up in Philadelphia and in Scottsdale, Ariz. She attended Mills College, then moved to New York City, where she took full advantage of everything the city had to offer, the ballet, the arts and the opera in particular. She studied history and art history at Hunter College, graduating summa cum laude, and also completed the American Arts Course graduate program at Sotheby's. This equipped her to catalogue paintings in an important private collection, work on the 2004 Childe Hassam exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and contribute to an exhibition catalogue for a New York art gallery. In addition, she was a gifted photographer of ballet and horticultural subjects and a serious practitioner of yoga; she also served on the board of the Iyengar Yoga Association of Greater New York.
In the mid-1980s, Lisa trained as a master gardener at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She worked as a volunteer at the Conservatory Garden in Central Park, then joined Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CCE) as the extension educator for Manhattan, where she focused on the creation of community gardens. "Passionate is the word for Lisa's work in those days," Charles Mazza, then a senior extension associate with CCE, said in an e-mail message. "Her approach was always a grass roots one-working alongside people in the neighborhoods. Nothing was too big a hurdle when it came to creating a garden." An accomplished photographer, Ms. Miller began documenting horticultural work, eventually creating an exhibition about careers in horticulture that toured New York State under the auspices of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Lisa's years with CCE led to her influential role with Metro Hort Group, where she served on the board for over twenty years and was a driving force in the development of an improved membership directory and a new Web site designed by noted artist R. O. Blechman. She was a gifted networker, helping both newcomers and established professionals make career-enhancing connections.
Lisa was noted for her joie de vivre, her acute intelligence and scintillating wit, as well as her sybaritic bent and her great sense of fun and adventure, which she loved to share with her close friends. The telephone was invented just for her, and she was dangerous on the road when chatting with a friend on her cell. She loved "Shampoo," especially Pol Roger, adored caviar, could never have enough of foie gras or white truffles on fettucini, and made a very intensely delicious salad dressing. Indeed, Lisa enjoyed a wide circle of close and devoted friends. So close and devoted was she to some that quite a few thought her their best friend, even a "member of the family," as she certainly was for us.
She is survived by a brother, Tanfield Miller; her aunts, Mrs. Leonard Block and Mrs. Suzanne Gruber; cousins Thomas Block and Peggy Danziger of New York, and cousins Valerie Block, Ellen Miller, Ginny Karabel, and Joan Koven. We shall all miss her very much.
Memorial tributes may be sent to the Central Park Conservancy, designated for the Conservatory Garden.