Carl Ferris Miller
| Carl Ferris Miller | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 5, 1921 Pittston, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | June 12, 2002 (aged 81) |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 민병갈 |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Min Byeong-gal |
| McCune–Reischauer | Min Pyŏnggal |
Carl Ferris Miller (1921–2002), was an American-born South Korean banker and arborist. He is best known as the founder of the Chollipo Arboretum in Taean-gun, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, and one of the first Americans to be naturalized as a South Korean citizen.
Miller, a native of Pittston, Pennsylvania, was a Phi Beta Kappa chemistry major in college. With the outbreak of World War II, he studied Japanese at the US Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He went on to serve as a Naval Intelligence Officer. In 1945 he was assigned to seek out Japanese soldiers still on the island of Okinawa, questioning village residents during the day. At night, the soldiers would return to obtain food and other support from the villagers.
According to William C. Sherman, in 1949 Miller was his deputy at the Performance Review Section of the Economic Cooperation Administration in Seoul. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he was evacuated to Japan, returning in 1951. In 1953 Miller worked for South Korea's central bank, the Bank of Korea, until his retirement in the early 1980s. He became fluent in the Korean language and later worked as a financial advisor and broker with a number of South Korean financial firms, ending with Good Morning Securities.
Miller eventually took the Korean name Min Byung-gal and in 1979 became a naturalized South Korean citizen.
He was a skilled bridge player and traveled the world with the South Korean national team. He gave time and money to a number of worthwhile causes and extended personal assistance to many Koreans, including the continuing support of over 50 children.
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