Miller Named New Honorary Fire Chief

The town’s new Honorary Fire Chief, Wally Miller, has a long record of community service in Pacific Palisades. At the town’s Law Enforcement Day last Sunday, he was sworn in and presented with a plaque by Honorary Mayor Steve Guttenberg. Station 69 chose Miller because of his community leadership. ‘I felt honored,’ says Miller, 77. ‘I didn’t realize I was getting so old that these are the kinds of things people think of me doing.’ He will ride on Station 69’s fire engine at the Fourth of July parade. Previous honorary fire chiefs have been Theresa Stewart, the late Mort Farberow, Arnie Wishnick and Dr. Mike Martini. Miller has been active in numerous organizations and was a founder of PAPA People, Graffiti Busters and PRIDE. He also came up with the idea for the Village Green, which he says came from idle conversation. ‘Bob Abernethy was honorary mayor at the time [1972] and he was interviewing different people to see what he could accomplish for the town,’ Miller recalls. ‘We were in a coffee shop where the Mobil station is now. He asked, ‘What could I do to improve the Palisades?’ Pointing across the street, I said: ‘Why don’t we get rid of that Standard station and build a park there?’ And that’s what we did. Bob Abernethy was the power behind it.’ The owner of Denton Jewelers from 1960 to 1996, Miller helped with fundraising, design and day-to-day watching over the Green as it was being built. Miller, now retired, spent nearly 50 years in the jewelry business, starting with a store in South Gate and then Denton in the Palisades, as well as another Denton in Brentwood which he owned for nine years. He and his wife of 53 years, Bonnie, have lived in the Palisades since 1961. They have three children’Lisa, a veterinarian in Cambria; Jeffrey, a commercial photographer in Seattle; and Michelle Scheiperpeter, a physical therapist in Ventura, plus six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. A native of Grafton, North Dakota, near the Canadian border, Miller moved to Los Angeles after his military service. He was in the Army Ordnance Corps just after World War II. He studied watchmaking and gemology and then opened his jewelry store in South Gate, where he belonged to the Optimist Club, the Chamber and other organizations. ‘When I came to Pacific Palisades, I decided I was going to mind my own business and not get involved because I didn’t have much time,’ says Miller. His decision didn’t last long. ‘I realized I needed to get involved because there was so much that needed to get done.’ Miller was Citizen of the Year in 1980 and Citizen of the Decade in 1990. He is past president of the Chamber of Commerce, PAPA (the parade organizing committee), the Village Green Committee and the Optimist Club. Also, he was chairman of the Design Review Board, the Palisades commercial-area Specific Plan and the Sign Standardization Committee (overhead sign removal and control), and was a member of the Palisades-Brentwood Community Plan committee, the Civic League board, while also serving on the founding committee of the Community Council. Miller is grateful he was able to improve the environment of Palisades. ‘Living in the Palisades has been a learning experience and I don’t regret any of the time I’ve been here,’ he says. ‘I wish I had gotten more involved in L.A. as a whole because they are the people that need the help. People here should be willing to contribute to the overall quality of life in the city of L.A. and a lot of them do.’ His philosophy is ‘If we can’t do it, nobody can; if we don’t do it, who will?’ A good example of that is Graffiti Busters, which he started after attending a Chamber of Commerce meeting in which people were complaining about the graffiti problem. Another part of his volunteer philosophy is having fun. After the Rotary Club and Optimist Club members helped at the Palisades parade for many years, Miller went to the Rose Parade and noticed all the volunteers dressed in white. He founded PAPA People, whose members take this pledge: ‘I promise to help with the parade and have fun doing it and if I can’t have fun doing it I will resign.’ Miller enjoys golf and traveling, and keeps involved in volunteer work as an advisor for PRIDE, the community beautification group. He set up the PRIDE board of directors with six-year term limits. ‘I’m a firm believer in turnover of people doing community service, so they don’t get too self-centered or too important to themselves. There are many people who would like to do community service but they don’t know what to do or how to get started. All they need to be is asked.’