William “Bill” Miller was 60 when he retired from the Marine Corps, his favorite job. He was enlisted during the Korean War, also fought in Vietnam, and later was a part of Operation Desert Storm.
Soon after retiring from the military, Miller started a home improvement venture with eight people which grew to 50 by the time he sold it in 1989. He also strengthened his relationships in two branches of the military and through businesses.
He likes to keep himself busy. Still wakes up at 4:30 a.m. to go to work and doesn’t get home until 6:30 p.m. some nights.
The veteran is now driving school buses for children with autism or other special needs, something he began about 10 years before moving to Florida. Miller says he feels a closeness with these children because he has an attention deficit disorder as well and can understand them.
“I identify with them,” said the Village of Chatham resident. “They’re my kids. I love them.”
These students are from four different schools – Rimes Early Learning and Literacy Center, Beverly Shores Elementary School, Fruitland Park Elementary School and Leesburg Elementary School. Aged mostly 3-11, these kids are in the severity of their special needs. Some have behavioral problems and yell frequently, while some don’t speak at all.
“They scream and holler, and it bothers a lot of people but doesn’t bother me,” he said, committedly.
“We always develop a relationship with the parents, because the parents have to put them on and take them off the bus,” he added. “It’s a little different than transporting kids from point A to point B.”
Miller is really committed because he works eight-hour shifts five days a week, up from about five hours of daily work he did before the COVID-19.
“I have a job I like now, though,” he added, “and I don’t have to work. That’s what makes it enjoyable.”
Although, he describes himself as “not a social animal,” Miller likes to spend hours at his daughter’s horse rescue farm in Belleview. Fallen Oaks Rescue Farm is home to 30 horses and various other farm animals. He said he likes to go over to her place on Saturdays and do the necessary maintenance.
“I spend a lot of time there in the summer,” Miller said. “They usually generate enough income annually to support the horses. The pandemic has been a little rough, so I’ve helped them out a little bit.”
Miller plans to drive until he’s at least 90 years old, same as the current age of the oldest bus driver in the U.S., a California man named Phillip Gardner.
“I’m the oldest driver in Lake County right now, but I want to be the oldest in the nation,” he joked. And with as much determination and devotion as he’s given to everything else in his life, he just might do it.
– Attributed Source, The Villages Daily Sun