Dale obituary - final

May 20, 1941 to December 27, 2025

Dale Miller was born the middle of five children to Glen and Vivian Miller in Cashmere, Washington, May 20, 1941 and died December 27, 2025, just 4 days shy of his 58th wedding anniversary to Leslee Batchelder.

When Dale was 12, the family moved to Tacoma where he graduated from Wilson High School then the University of Puget Sound with a BA in Political Science and History. Instead of going on to law school at that time, Dale chose to travel independently. He bought a little Triumph Spitfire in England and shipped it home to Seattle two years later, visiting all countries in the northern hemisphere in between. In France he lived in Paris and Grenoble and earned his subsistence money by teaching and writing articles for his hometown newspaper.

During his expansive travels he became interested in how people of different cultures housed themselves. He applied to the Master of Architecture program at the University of Washington, was accepted and returned to Seattle fall of 1966. There he met Leslee Batchelder in an architecture class and they were married late 1967. Two sons were born in Seattle, Damon in 1970 and Cameron in 1975.

Dale loved camping and stream fishing, but his strong work ethic kept him focused on his work as a housing and community development planner. He, Leslee and a third partner formed The Phoenix Group in Seattle where community development, architectural design and construction management was a focus for 15 years, serving clients in WA, OR and MT.

In 1989, Dale, Leslee and Cameron moved to the Palouse region in SE Washington. For 29 years, they called the small town of Uniontown near Pullman home. Dale resumed his regional consulting work, then soon began working full time for the Community Action Center as their housing manager. For more than 20 years he led the non-profit in developing housing for people with special needs throughout Whitman County. Recently CAC named an LLC in honor of Dale’s work - Miller Housing Group LLC.

On the home front, Millers developed a nationally recognized alpaca herd on their 7 acres called Premier Alpacas of the Palouse, which operated for 18 years.

Both Dale and Leslee were very active in the Uniontown community. Dale organized and led the Uniontown Community Development Association which marshalled community volunteers to help rehabilitate historic buildings on main street and move in new businesses. The redevelopment projects were accomplished thanks to Dale’s well honed grant writing skills. Projects include Artisans at the Dahmen Barn which opened in 2006, the historic Jacobs Building, first housing a commercial bakery and cafe, and a wine tasting room.

Dale’s final and largest scale project began with the purchase of 25 acres of farm ground on the SW corner of Uniontown in 2006. Doing business as Rolling Hills Associates, wife Leslee and a third partner developed 46 single family lots, overseeing the design and construction of roads and utilities where buyers could build their dream homes. The last of the lots sold in 2025, but not all have been built on yet. Dale felt passionate about increasing Uniontown’s population to support the independent school district and to grow the town’s tax base. The development has increased Uniontown’s population by approximately one third since 1989. Mission accomplished.

In 2017 Dale was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. He and Leslee decided to downsize and move to Bellingham where their younger son Cameron and his family lived. Dale finished his last CAC housing project remotely.

Dale is survived by his four siblings, Juanita Culberson, Michigan; Ken (wife Barbara) Tacoma; Don (wife Carolyn) Port Angeles; Ron (wife Jane) Tacoma; wife Leslee, son Damon (wife Carey) of Alexandria VA and his grandson Owen, Victoria BC; son Cameron (partner Jenn) and granddaughter Merritt, Bellingham.

A celebration of Dale’s life will be held on August 1st in Bellingham. If you would like to receive details about the open house event, please write to Cameron at cameron.t.miller@gmail.com.

Memorial donations may be made in memory of Dale to: Artisans at the Dahmen Barn artisanbarn.org and the Community Action Center in Pullman cacwhitman.org.