Michael Miller

I was born in Brooklyn, NY 11/02/1942 to the parents of Dorothy and Benjamen Miller. We moved from New York to California in 1946 where my parents worked for the Navy on a Military Research Property called China Lake. I attended Bakersfield Jr College, from where I graduated in 1966 with my AA degree and enrolled in The Califonia State College at Long Beach from where I graduated with my BA Degree in 1964. After graduating I got married and went to work in Santa Rosa, California in the Hotel and Restaurant Industy. I was fortunate enough to have a father-in-law who owned a large piece of property with a large motel on it and worked for him. Over the next 31 years I learned accounting. During that same time we grew the business from 75 motel rooms to a large Convention Center with 300 rooms, 4 swimming pools, a playground, 4 Tennis Courts, 20 meeting and Banquet Rooms, a 20,000 sq foot Convention Center and even two Football Fields! (the football fields were used by the Oakland Raider Football Team for Summer training for 21 years!!). All this was on 72 acres of prime real estate next to freeway 101. The history at El Rancho Tropicana(the name of our property) is to extensive to get into here. Suffice it to say we were the largest of this type of facility in the area and hosted many Conventions and Conferences. In 1992 we entered into a contract to sell the property to a large Real Estate Company from Southern California. They actually removed the entire faciltiy and constructed a Major Shopping Center. As a major owner of the faciltiy I received a handsome amount of money as my share of the transaction. During this time I met Edith Freymann Olson whom I ended up proposing marriage to in 1994. We actually sold our belongings in California and moved to Post Falls, Idaho to live. Shortly after moving here we got married and purchased a major Business Center named River City Plaza. That Center has remained 100% occuppied during our ownership of the past 18 years. I am very active in the local Chamber of Commerce as well as a reprentative of our area on the Local Transportation Committee. After all these years I am starting to slow down but refuse to retire. I am having to much fun.