Remembering Sara Miller 1952 to 2024
The day after Christmas Sara Miller passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. With her passing, the Central Oregon branch of the Oregon Master Beekeeper Program lost a dedicated mentor, instructor and regional representative.
Sara got into beekeeping when her husband wanted a beehive. He wasn’t the learning type, though, but she was. Naomi Price, a mentor in the program, worked with Sara in that first year to save her struggling colony. Naomi remembered, “Sara listened to my suggestion of an invasive intervention and agreed with a complete understanding of difficulty in husbandry decision making. Her colony lived to see another year and to thrive. Her strength and resolve was exemplary. The next year Sara was enrolled in the OMB program.” That’s when I had the privilege of having Sara as my mentee and I got to know her as a committed learner and responsible beekeeper. She brought her friendly nature, loyalty and no-nonsense attitude, not only to our growing friendship but also to the OMB Program.
Sara was among the first students who showed up to my first workshops in 2016 at the OSU Research Center in Madras. She was clearly “bitten by the bug”, coming to every workshop, going through the apprenticeship, then becoming a mentor herself in addition to supporting Central Oregon participants as the regional representative. She was dedicated to the OMB Program, and always willing to help. She assisted in countless “Saturday in the Apiary” workshops, hive inspections at the Teaching Apiary and extracting honey as long she had the strength. Over the years she became a dear friend to me, also got close with many on our mentor team. As Clyde Dildine, our head instructor, writes, “being a horsewoman she was tough as nails, attending all of our classes in 2024. Even when she wasn’t teaching and did not need to drag her ailing body in to support the effort. She was a fighter, always having a positive but realistic attitude concerning her illness. She gave so much to us all.”
Sara, you will be greatly missed. We did go, and told your bees, as you wanted us to.
by Heike Williams