Edward Lehman Miller

May 06, 2025

Edward Lehman Miller died on May 6, 2025. He had the unique distinction of being the youngest charter member of Akron Mennonite Church (AMC), where he was a lifelong member. His mentors at AMC taught him that when the church asks you to do something, you say, YES.

Attorney Sam Wenger called Ed, while he was in high school, advising him to consider the law as a career choice. Ed took the advice, graduated from Goshen College, then got a law degree from Temple Law School. He married Twila Gingerich in June of 1968. Ed was drafted in 1968, during his second year at Temple Law School. Because he was a conscientious objector, he and Twila went to Butwal, Nepal, where they worked for three years.

After returning to the USA, Ed graduated from Temple and practiced law with Wenger and Byler. In the summer of 1976 Ed and Twila again went to Nepal, this time taking their 2-year- old son Kirk with them, and they worked for three more years in Butwal. Their son Penn was born in Tansen, Nepal. Ed first worked for Butwal Technical Institute (BTI) where a group of international engineers were building an underground hydro power project, operating a machine shop, a wood shop and an auto shop — all while training young Nepali men in the skills that the foreigners had brought to Nepal. In the second three years at BTI Ed worked as business manager for the institute’s Development and Consulting Services bringing new technologies to Nepal.

When the family returned to the USA in 1979 Ed re-joined the law firm, now called Byler and Thomas, as a real estate lawyer with a focus on helping farmers use the benefits of Section 1031 of the IRS Code when buying and selling farms. Ed gave presentations to the Pennsylvania Bar Association about those benefits. When Byler Thomas merged to become the firm of Blakinger Byler and Thomas, Ed became chair of the real estate section.

Ed took a one-year leave of absence from the law firm to prepare for the Mennonite World Conference Assembly, which took place in Calcutta, in January of 1997. In 2001, Ed and Twila agreed to a six-year term as program directors for the Mennonite Central Committee India program in Calcutta. In 2004 the tsunami hit India, and Ed traveled along India’s coast from the north to the south to frame MCC’s response to the tsunami’s devastation. In 2007 Ed rejoined the law firm once again. He retired in 2022 after being recognized for 50 years of membership in the Lancaster County Bar Association.

Ed loved to bike. Saturday morning biking with Twila and a group of friends was a weekly pleasure for over 20 years. Every spring, to get back in biking shape, Ed biked the Skyline Drive in Virginia with friends. In order to accommodate his bike commute to work, the law firm installed a shower in the basement of their building. He and Twila twice biked across Iowa with the RAGBRAI. In September of 1992 Ed biked across Pennsylvania as part of a fundraiser for the American Lung Association — which he said was the most beautiful and difficult ride of his life.

Ed was a college history major and loved being a tour guide wherever he lived. In Calcutta he most enjoyed taking guests, both locals and foreigners, on walking tours through the city streets. Each tour would be different, but he tried to always include the Flower Market near the Hooghly River and the Victoria Memorial (the latter known as the most beautiful building built in Asia since the Taj Mahal). In Lititz he enjoyed volunteering at the Lititz Welcome Center and the Lititz Historical Museum. He loved regaling Twila with amazing stories about the people he met.

Ed enjoyed serving on the boards of Tabor Community (now Ten Fold Lancaster), Mennonite Children’s Choir of Lancaster, and Re-Uz-It on State in Ephrata. Perhaps most interesting and rewarding for him in his later years was his work in the formation of the Bank of Bird-in-Hand in response to the need for a community bank. The bank was the first de-nova bank in the USA since the Great Recession. Ed worked on the bank’s board from its founding until 2023.

The Millers called 1010 Main Street in Akron their home until 2017 when Ed and Twila moved to Moravian Manor in Lititz. Ed is survived by his wife Twila and their two sons, Kirk and Penn. Kirk and his wife Heather, of West Lafayette IN, have two children, Amelia and Stefan. Penn and his wife Caryn, of Lititz PA, have two children, Brisa and Soren. He is also survived by his sisters Jill Frey and Connie Miller and his brother Jan.

A celebration of life service will be held at Akron Mennonite Church, 1311 Diamond St., Akron, PA on May 24th, 2025 at 11AM. Friends may visit with Ed’s family from 10-11AM. Contributions may be made to the following organizations in memory of Ed: The Common Wheel Co-op, 701 E. King St., Lancaster, PA 17602 or Mennonite Central Committee, 21 South 12th St., Akron, PA 17501.