UFT Admin
- Retired UFT vice president for middle schools
Richard Miller, a gifted union organizer who dedicated 65 years of his life to education as a New York City public school teacher, a UFT district representative, a UFT vice president and the head of the Retired Teachers Chapter’s Nevada section, died on May 17, 2025, from heart failure. He was 87.
Rich began his career in education as a social studies teacher at JHS 228 in Brooklyn in the fall of 1959, six months before the UFT was founded. He quickly became active in the union, serving as the school’s union delegate and a consultation committee member. In November 1960, Rich helped lead the UFT’s one-day strike for collective bargaining rights.
In 1966, Rich transferred to IS 61 in Queens, where he again became a union delegate and later served as chapter leader for many years. He helped desegregate IS 61 and led the school chapter in the union’s 1968 strike. While at IS 61, Rich also worked after school for the Queens borough office, coordinating its political action program and serving as a union representative in grievance hearings.
In the early 1980s, Rich helped organize UFT nurses and health care professionals in New York City. “Richard was a dynamic leader who worked passionately on our organizing campaign for city nurses, specifically in Queens,” said UFT Vice President Anne Goldman, the veteran leader of the Federation of Nurses/UFT. “He was a pleasure to work with and supported unionization for all city nurses.”
He also helped organize teachers, school related professionals and state employees throughout the country with the American Federation of Teachers. In 1983, the national union recruited Rich to be executive director of the Indiana Federation of Teachers.
Two years later, Rich returned to the UFT and was elected UFT representative for District 24.
In 1995, Rich was elected UFT vice president for middle schools, a post he held until his retirement in 2002.
After settling in Nevada, Rich became the RTC section coordinator for Nevada.
Two retired vice presidents, Carmen Alvarez and Frank Volpicella, both recall how Miller, when he was a district rep, took them under his wing and shared his union organizing expertise.
Alvarez said if Rich noticed a member had good leadership skills and potential, he would encourage and nurture them. “There are things he would teach me, share with me, encourage me in ways that others did not, and he was that way with just about anybody he connected with,” she said.
Volpicella recalled how in the early 1990s, when Volpicella was a new UFT district representative, Rich “helped me get adjusted to my new UFT position.”
John Soldini worked alongside Rich from when the two men were fellow UFT vice presidents to recent years, when they both played roles in the RTC. “Rich never really retired because he brought life to the retiree chapter in Las Vegas,” Soldini said.
As coordinator for the RTC section in Nevada, Rich “almost single-handedly transformed our labor, political and social presence there,” said Tom Murphy, a former UFT political director and RTC leader.
Murphy credited Miller with helping turn Nevada from a red state to a purple/blue one in national elections. “Working with the AFT, the AFL-CIO and the Alliance for Retired Americans and with the full support of the UFT’s retiree chapter and political department, he developed a national reputation for the UFT’s progressive politics, helping to elect senators, members of Congress and presidents,” he said.
The Nevada AFL-CIO, recognizing Rich’s leadership skills, asked him to join its Retiree Council and Central Labor Council, and Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn appointed him to the Nevada Prescription Drug Policy Makers Summit in 2007 after hearing him testify about prescription drug prices. Rich also served as the AFT vice president to the Nevada Alliance for Retired Americans.
Rich’s son Chet Miller, an elementary school physical education teacher, said his father’s union involvement was strongly influenced by former UFT President Albert Shanker and the struggles that Rich’s own father faced in life. Two of Rich’s aunts died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911.
Rich is survived by his wife, Janet, a retired educator; his three sons — Chet; Seth, an attorney; and Scott, a middle school music teacher; and four grandchildren.
Dear Janet,
I was deeply saddened to read of Richard’s passing.
So many memories of working together at IS 61 and
at JHS 73 in Queens before I transferred to the high
schools. Later on, when I became an educational
consultant, our paths crossed again when we reconnected
under the Rapides Foundation in Louisiana, Of course
Charlie Sutera remained connected to Richard and me for his whole life
life. May his memory remain a blessing.
I wish you strength to get through this very sad time in
you life. Sincerely, Ed Scall
whole life. . He was a close friend of Charlie and a link
with our close friends, the late
Virginia and Jim Dinzey. I wish you strength in your loss
and I have fond memories of your three sons when the were small,
Rich told me that two of his aunts died in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire the set NY and the nation further on the path of progressive labor reform. So he had labor in his blood.
Tom Murphy