Don Miller

2025 Lifetime Achievement Honouree

Driving South on McCowan, somewhere South of Stouffville Road, while looking ahead and slightly to the West, you’ll come upon a farmhouse and farm property that stands sturdy, proud and present for the community that surrounds it, since the late 1860’s, when a young Pennsylvanian Dutch farmer decided that Peaches, Ontario would be a fine place to make a life.  While much of the nearby landscape has changed significantly over the years, The Miller’s have held on to the simple values that have always served them and the people they care about so well.

Don stated, “We showed up for each other – everyone knew everyone and helped everyone.  Anything and everything that happened was then solved within the community.”  Everyone went to church.  Every Sunday at 10am.  Chores before church, and then the congregation gathered, shared, connected and ate.  There was always something to do.  Someone in need.  Something requiring a fix or to be built.  “We did it together”.

Sitting at the kitchen table, inside of the very farmhouse his father was born in, he shared with great heart how much it meant to him to raise his own four children in the home that he too was born in.  Family and community are what mattered most to all three founding generations of Miller men and their families, who’s passion, care and enthusiasm to make a difference have absolutely shaped the Markham/Stouffville area. 

Don recalled that his father Henry, travelled more than 25km by horse and buggy to court Don’s mother Flossie MacArthur, who was from Newmarket.  His father would boast that his horse was so reliable and knew it’s way so well, that in terrible weather, he could (and would) lay down in the buggy with a blanket completely covering him, and often fall asleep, only to wake at Flossie’s family doorstep or his own family home on McCowan.  When Don began courting a special young woman from Stouffville, he used that very same buggy, and a wonderful little horse named “Jenny” to make the voyage over to the Barkey family home.  Don and Dee were married in 1952.  That very same buggy is still on the property, in the barn, where present and future generations can appreciate it.

While Don has many great achievements to his name, including but not limited to more than five decades of dedication to the Markham Fair, spearheading and supporting many different community-minded and child-focused projects and events including The Pizza Project, Food Grains Bank, Good Food Impact, Ronald McDonald House Charities and most recently, he saw and acted upon the opportunity to sponsor his Nigerian caregiver, so that he may focus on finishing school and becoming a resident, after which he intends to live his professional and personal life by Don’s example - giving back and making a difference everywhere he can.

It would be impossible to truly measure the impact Don Miller, and his family have had in the area, but there is one measure that cannot be ignored, and directly relates to the values and integrity passed down to Don Miller, from his father, and his father’s father;  Don and Joyce had four children, who chose to live and raise their own families not far from where they themselves grew up.  The (now) flock of eleven grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren are also within an admirable distance from the property where it all began, with the exception of one great grandchild who is perhaps creating new roots and legacies in Australia, hopefully living his best and healthiest life, like the men who came before him.

“The harder I worked and the more I cared, the luckier I got.” – Don Miller