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Couple opens hearts, home to seminarians
by Abby Simons
Letting out a sigh of contentment, Barney, a fat and happy black
Labrador retriever, relaxes between the feet of Bob and Carol Miller.
His master out of town, the pampered pooch is the Miller’s only guest on
a quiet Sunday afternoon.
The quiet starkly contrasts most weekends for the Conception Seminary
College benefactors and founders of the Serran-CSC Golf Classic. The
straight-talking, outgoing couple boast to everyone they meet that their
door is always open – literally. Friends are continually urged to walk
in anytime, help themselves, and find a bed for the night.
 Priests and Conception seminarians are regular recipients of the Miller
hospitality. And each fall close to 200 golfers and their families fill
the home and spacious back yard for a post-golf tournament barbecue.
Opening their hearts and doors to anyone – canines included – comes as
natural as breathing to husband and wife of 45 years.
“Why not?” asked Bob, a quick-to- laugh man with smiling eyes, who is
stubbornly oblivious to the locked-door policy of most city people. “Why
wouldn’t you want your home to be open to seminarians or to any other
folks? It’s just the right thing to do.”
Long ago, generosity became a lifelong mission to the former Conception
Seminary College regents and founders of Robert E. Miller Insurance and
Miller Travel. Aside from establishing the golf tournament, which raises
$25,000 annually, the Millers have both served on the Conception Seminary
College Board of Regents and remain faithful Conception benefactors. They
recently donated the decorative fixtures that light the abbey grounds,
playfully called the ‘Miller Lights’ by one monk. In addition, Miller
Travel was established in order to furnish low-cost trips for monks,
seminarians and members of various other non-profit organizations. Bob
was honored in 1997 as the first non-alumni to receive the Conception
Seminary College Alumni Award for Distinguished Service.
The Millers’ generosity is driven by a desire to see the Church continue
to blossom as a force for good in the Midwest. And that, they say,
begins with its seminary roots.
“All Catholics believe they need more priests and vocations,” Bob said.
“Conception is getting that done. We ought to support them.”
The Millers remain humble when it comes to their fundraising endeavors,
which have quietly touched many charitable organizations throughout the
Kansas City area.
“We’re not really ‘big wheels.’ We just try to help out when we can,”
Bob said. “People give us credit for a lot more things than we deserve.”
Father Benedict Neenan, president-rector of Conception Seminary College
and a longtime friend of the Millers, begs to differ.
“They’ve done some very important things,” Father Benedict said.
“They’ve become a valuable source of funds for the seminarians, and have
won a lot of friends for us. They’ve also been warm and generous toward
the seminarians, and I think they’ve given them a real witness to what
kind of support they can expect in the priesthood from good, solid lay
people.”
The couple also established Ad Majorum Dei Glorium, (“For the Greater
Glory of God”), a family-run organization that raises thousands of
dollars for an array of charitable projects.
AMDG most recently aided in the rebuilding of a shelter for earthquake
victims in El Salvador. The charity has also established various camps
throughout the nation for wayward and disabled children.
The parents of four and grandparents of 16 say tending the needs of
others is common sense.
“You do the things you feel you ought to do, and that you're told to do,"
Carol said. "Nothing is just happenstance. God talks to you if you listen.
I think the things he asks of us we try to listen to and do."
For all their altruism, the Millers confess there's an ulterior motive
behind their efforts. They want a reward.
"Going to Heaven," Bob said, absently scratching behind Barney's hear.
"That's big time."
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