Obituary: John Hobart Miller Jr. / Custom home developer who rode suburban wave

When corporate executives flooded into the Steel City during the latter half of the 20th century, one man was ready to house them.

John Hobart Miller Jr., a custom homebuilder and land developer, incorporated his construction company in 1956 the height of the American suburbanization building spree and just as Pittsburghs economic base began shifting to include more service industries.

These were higher-paid guys used to bigger homes, John Miller III of Fox Chapel said of his fathers clients. The baby boom generation was taking off, so it was the right place, right time.

The elder Mr. Miller, of Fox Chapel, died Monday at the age of 86.

In all, family members estimated he had his hands on 600 new homes, including his signature development called Forest Manor in Harmar. Its a figure that supports his reputation among fellow developers and builders as the man who built Pittsburghs suburbs, family members said.

The eventual developer of million-dollar homes for the affluent came from humble roots. Born in 1928, Mr. Miller grew up learning carpentry while working for his father, John Miller Sr., who himself owned a home-building business that had prospered during the economic boom of the 1920s.

But then came the Great Depression, and John Miller Sr. slowed the building of new houses and lost his own home. After high school, John Miller Jr. spent a year at Carnegie Mellon University but didnt have the money to stay any longer.

When his father died in 1956, Mr. Miller got a $5,000 loan from his mother, bought a pickup truck and joined a few men to continue the tradition and form his own company: John Hobart Miller Inc.

Everyone thinks someone handed him a business, John Miller III said. Much to the contrary, his fathers work ethic, attention to detail and commitment to customer service propelled him to the top of a booming industry, he said.

Mr. Miller had a knack for building single-family custom homes, but after meeting land developers at networking conventions, he began to dream bigger and riskier: He started buying land.

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Obituary: John Hobart Miller Jr. / Custom home developer who rode suburban wave