Joseph Adelbert Miller, 78, died July 18, 2003, after a battle with lung cancer.

He was born Feb. 21, 1925, in Providence, R.I., to James Andrew and Alice Clorissa Brown Miller. He grew up in Seattle and had attended schools in Oregon. He was a graduate of Los Angeles City College.

He joined the Navy in 1943 and served in Germany and in the Philippines in a naval communications station in radio intelligence. He received citations and was awarded campaign ribbons for his service in national defense and Korean service. He was honorably discharged in 1963. He was a member of the Fleet Reserve Association and a supporter of Veterans of Foreign Wars and the USO.

After his retirement from the Navy he went to work for TransContinental and TransAmerica Insurance Co. in Los Angeles as department manager. He retired after 20 years. He donated some of his land on Maxwelton Creek to the Maxwelton Salmon Adventure.

He was preceded in death by an aunt, Florence Miller Rathkey, who became his second mother after his mother died when he was 7.

He is survived by his wife, Madeline Land Miller, whom he married on Whidbey Island in 1983; a brother, Steven Andrew Miller, of Seattle; two sisters-in-law, Marjorie Sacre of Clinton and Beverly Dill of Atlanta, Ga.; and two nephews, Paul Dill of Kona, Hawaii, and Jeff Richards of Thousand Oaks, Calif.

He was buried in Tahoma National Cemetery. There will be a memorial service with military honors at 11 a.m. Saturday at the main flagpole in the cemetery.