William L. Miller, 83; Led Fire Dept. Desegregation

Former city Fire Chief William L. Miller, whose nine-year tenure was troubled by a stormy and lengthy integration struggle, has died, a department spokesman said Friday.

Miller, who retired in 1965, died Sunday in Lake Elsinore where he had been living. He was believed to be 83 and died of cancer.

He had been a firefighter for 23 years when he took over the department in January, 1956, and his term was not yet a month old when he ordered the transfer of eight black and eight white firefighters into a single company, a first in local Fire Department history.

Six years later he reported to the Fire Commission that segregation in the department had officially ended. In the interim period the growing number of blacks assigned to fire stations had been forced to sleep in different beds than white firefighters had occupied at the end of shifts and had to eat in separate facilities.

The integration struggle was filled with angry charges and countercharges and Miller--who received much of the credit for the successful desegregation policy--at one time was reported to be on the verge of resignation.

He did not resign, instead retiring in July, 1965, for “personal reasons of health.” He said his doctor had suggested that he take a “good long rest.

Miller joined the department in 1933 and was named a captain in 1942. During World War II he was a damage control officer in the Navy, returning to the department at war’s end. He became a battalion chief in 1948 and then was named first assistant to Chief John H. Anderson. In January, 1956, he placed first in the Civil Service examinations to replace the retiring Anderson.

Miller also sparred with the city’s Fire Commission, not just over the integration process but also over budgetary cutbacks.

His proposal to close 10 stations in 1963 to effect an ordered $2-million reduction led to demands for a department reorganization from then Fire Commissioner Fred W. Kline, who called Miller’s drastic plan “a relic of horse and buggy days.”

But on Friday, Kline said that “Bill Miller was one of the finest gentlemen that I ever had the pleasure of knowing. He’s the man who made the Fire Department No. 1 in the nation.”

The chief was cremated in private services.