— by Paul Kamin —
Warren Miller, third from left, leads youngsters in individual achievement
Orcas Islander Warren Miller passed away on Jan 24th. Warren was a special friend to many of his Orcas neighbors. Warren lived for the adventure and was absolutely a “collector of stories”. There are also lots of stories to be told about Warren. Let’s share some here on Orcas Issues.
Everyone knows Warren’s passion for skiing, but he was a great believer in encouraging young folks to pursue their passion for other individual adventure sports as well. Warren was a big believer that you could best find yourself by pushing your limits, on your own.
Back in 2002 Warren Miller helped create an innovative new program at YMCA Camp Orkila called Freedom Sports Week. The program brought top notch volunteer instructors to work with kids on one specific specialty for an entire week. Options included skateboarding, mountain biking, BMX racing, Frisbee sports and sailing. Warren personally “opened his rolodex” (rolodex? look it up) to recruit many of the instructors, and help fund the program.
As the climax of the Mountain Biking experience, one of the hot shot mountain biking instructors asked if the group could ride up Mt Constitution from Cascade Lake to the Summit. Warren overhead the request, and said “Let me see if I can make that happen”. The next morning Warren reported that he had arranged for the closure of the Mt Constitution road for 3 hours on the morning of JULY 4th for the exclusive use of “his” 40 young Orkila bikers. Can you imagine closing Mt. Constitution on JULY 4th! Wow! The morning of July 4th arrived and San Juan County sheriff deputies and Park Staff were on hand to wave the bikers through, while politely turning all others away during one of the busiest days of the year in Moran State Park.
The memory that sticks in my mind was Warren, standing by himself at the summit in a blue sweatshirt personally congratulating each young biker as the came around the final corner. The light in these kids’ eyes was magical. Warren Miller, this legendary adventurer, was expressing his admiration of each biker’s accomplishment. It was a fabulous, generous, unforgettable gift that Warren gladly offered. A gift I doubt anyone else could have offered and made happen. After the event, Warren told me he enjoyed doing it as much as the kids enjoyed their amazing accomplishment. Warren was many things, but foremost I remember him as an amazing giver and believer in the potential in each child.
What’s your Warren Miller story? [If you would like to share your remembrances, please comment to this story, or email your story to editor@theorcasonian.com]
Paul Kamin, former YMCA Camp Orkila Director way back when.
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My admiration for Warren came quickly, when I came back to the Island in 2002. He was hosting the showing of some of his ski films at Orcas Center. He would perch at the side of the stage, and narrate these hair raising images of skiers doing unbelievable turns and aerial feats at unbelievable speeds down steep mountainsides.
I think he was as amazed at his early filming expertise as we were, having started filming when they had to lug heavy cameras over rough terrain, many times on skis, perhaps with real seal skins strapped to them.
Island Hardware has all of Warren’s back-of-the-page articles he contributed to their monthly “newsletter”…I just read the latest, written in Dec. 2009.
Wouldn’t it be great to have his films and memorabilia stored in the Orcas Historical Museum. I feel, however that his love for the Montana mountains will be where his memories reside.
Go well, Warren.
Warren would occasionally drop in on Kaleidoscope, who he helped support many times throughout his years on Orcas, and hang out talking with the staff and kids.
Occasionally he would cause utter chaos by handing out $1 million bills with his face on them. It then became the job of the staff to convince 3 and 4 year olds that they couldn’t take the money to the store and buy goodies with it. Not sure which he enjoyed more, handing out the bills to the kids, or knowing the mischief that he had incited!