Two matters closely identified with Brian Miller were prominent in the winter of 2023.
One was Mosgiel’s new swimming pool, Te Puna o Whakaehu, which opened in June.
The other concerned renewed suggestions of a Mosgiel bypass, and Riccarton Rd has historically tended to feature in such discussions.
Mr Miller was a longtime Riccarton Rd resident and he was an advocate over the years for its safety, and a critic of proposed road widening.
He became a long-serving Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board member. First elected in 1995, he subsequently served three more full terms from 2001-04, 2010-13 and from 2019-22.
He was a dogged campaigner and a stickler for procedure. He did not mind a battle and was prepared to wade through immense detail to make his point.
Mr Miller remained a board member at the time of his death, in Dunedin Hospital after a short illness, on July 3. He was 78.
He was still contributing to debate as late as March last year, when he argued in an Otago Daily Times opinion piece Mosgiel-Taieri was treated as "the poor relation within the Dunedin City Council family".
Among his observations was the Mosgiel pool complex required millions of dollars of direct community fundraising to create a worthwhile facility.
Mr Miller became well known about 15 years earlier as the Riccarton Rd West Safety Society chairman, and for years he bristled at suggestions Riccarton Rd could be a suitable arterial route.
His widow, Adrienne Miller, said he did a lot of research and was on first-name terms with Ombudsman’s office staff.
"He didn’t do things by halves," she said.
Brian James Miller was born in Ashburton on September 6, 1944. Son of the late Betty and Jim Miller, and younger brother of Merilyn, he initially attended Ashburton East School, now called Hampstead School.
They moved to Christchurch. His father, a printer at Higgins Print, died when Brian was 7, Mrs Miller said.
He attended North New Brighton School and Shirley Boys’ High School in Christchurch, and then learnt how to be a wool classer, sorting wool after it was shorn.
He served in the territorials, and enjoyed deer stalking and fishing.
Mrs Miller met him when she was about 17 and he was a year older.
They married in 1967 and had a son, Robin, in 1970, and daughter, Tracey, in 1972.
His career started with Bob Woodham in Ashburton, then Tekau Knitwear as a knitwear mechanic, before a move to Dunedin.
He worked at Mosgiel Knitwear and later went Roslyn Mill, before working at Burnside freezing works. He excelled in merino wool-classing in the freezing works offseason, she said.
The couple moved near to Mosgiel in 1987.
He built greenhouses and set up hydroponics, supplying restaurants and farmers’ markets with lettuces, tomatoes and herbs.
He was fond of his grandchildren Rose, Oliver and Aiden.
Soon after Mr Miller’s death, Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich described him as a passionate advocate who was full of enthusiasm and vigour.
"Mr Miller was one of those local community leaders who never left you in any doubt about his views, and who had a knack for capturing the community’s attention, including in his election campaigns."
The Taieri Community Facilities Trust said he was a strong advocate for Mosgiel-Taieri issues over many years. Mr Miller was part of the project control group for the new aquatic centre, as the community board representative.
"Every community needs battlers like Brian," the trust said.
"Brian never shied away from finding the truth and fighting for what he believed in."
