The Autobiography of Dr. Norman Miles

Having been honored at the Pastoral Evangelism and Leadership Conference in Huntsville, Alabama on Sunday, December 5th, Dr. Norman Miles reflects on his life and the God’s hand in it.

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I was born on December 5, 1946, the fourth child of Mervin and Sadie Miles.  I was their only child to survive the birth process.  My two brothers were stillborn, and my older sister lived for only a few minutes after birth.  My father was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Toledo, Ohio by his uncle Harry Miles because his mother died while he was a child.  My mother was born in Arkansas, the second daughter of Joseph and Gertrude Norman.  While her mother was pregnant with my mother, her father left the South to come North and find work he never returned and my mother saw her father for the first time when she was 18.  Eventually my grandmother divorced my grandfather and remarried.  From this union she had three children, my uncles Willie and Oliver, and my aunt Mildred.  The family would eventually move to Tallulah, LA where they were sharecroppers.  My mother walked three miles to school each day and when she graduated from Tallulah High School she left the South alone to live with her aunt in Toledo.  There she met my father and they married.  After marriage they were able to get her mother and siblings to come to Toledo since her stepfather had passed away. 

When I was five years old my parents divorced, and though my dad was always in my life and they did a good job of co-parenting, I never got over the desire to have dad in the house every day.  After their divorce my mother moved us into my grandmother’s home and she went back to school to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse.  In the 1950’s few black women were nurses and mother worked during the day and went to school at night.  In 1952 my mother graduated from nursing school, the only African-Amercian in her class.  She immediately found work at Mercy Hospital, a Catholic hospital on the west side of Toledo, as a pediactrict nurse where she would work for 36 years.  When we lived with my grandmother she had to take two buses to work, but in 1956 she purchased a beautiful Victorian home in the west end of Toledo, Two blocks from the Art Museum, and a block and a half from Mercy Hospital.  No more buses to work.  At the age of ten, my mother took me to an evangelistic meeting where Elder Leon Cox was preaching the Sabbath message.  Although my mother was a strict and devoted Christian, I had never heard of Sabbath before.  I asked her if the preacher was telling the truth and she said yes.  Now I was really confused but my mother told me that some Christians observed Sabbath  and others observed Sunday in honor of Jesus’ resurrection.  She said we observed Sunday because it was the family tradition.  For me, that was not enough, and two years later Elder Cox baptized me with my mother’s blessing. I would later discover that some of my parents oldest friends were Adventists.

I had no plans to become a minister.  When I graduated from high school in 1964 I was planning to go to Bowling Green State University on an Art scholarship.  That summer I was working with Elder J.C.Smith, my pastor, doing his art and media work not knowing that this would change my life.  At the end of the summer I gave up my scholarship and artistic aspirations and went to Oakwood College.  A year later I met the vivacious Doris Goree, and three years later we married.  We had no idea what adventures and mis-adventures we would experience in the years to come.  We became the parents of five children, and pastoral assignments would lead us from Mississippi, to Detroit, to Chicago, to Newark. We would spend three years in Ann Arbor, MI while I was in graduate school, fifteen years in Berrien Springs while I taught at the Theological Seminary, and ten years in Chicago while I was president of Lake Region Conference.

God has been amazing in my life.  I came from a family of undistinguished working-class African-Americans who believed in God, hard work, and good deeds.  I have experienced a number of significant events.
First in my family to graduate from college
First in my family to attend and graduate from graduate school. PhD, University of Michigan,1978
First African-American to chair a department at SDA Theological Seminary.  Chair: Christian Ministry Department 1986-94
Married 55 years and counting
Adjunct Professor of Religion at the University of Michigan, 27 years
President of Lake Region Conference, 1994-2005
Chairman of the Regional Caucus and President’s Council, 2000-2005
Pastor of Hyde Park SDA Church, Chicago for 16 years
Pastor of Trinity Temple SDA Church, Newark for almost 18 years

During the years I served as President of the Regional Caucus we were able to see the impossible take place, the development of the Regional Retirement Plan. I am so happy to have had a part in this major development in the life of the church and it’s workers.

In this rather circuitous journey I come back to my first two impulses, profound thanks and gratitude.
I am thankful to the Lord who has made the impossible a reality in my life.
I am thankful to those who supported and encouraged me along this journey, especially my wife Doris
I am thankful for the nay-sayers who predicted my failure in various aspects of life.  They forced me to work harder and do better.

I am grateful that the Lord has allowed me to see His goodness during my life.
I am grateful that God has given me family and friends who constantly bless my life.
I am grateful that a younger generation recognized what has been done so far, and I hope that my experience will encourage them to greater exploits.