Thanks Tom for letting us know.
Peace.
MHW
Vince was a very decent, kind, and hard-working man. I shall miss him.
One of the great men of the century.
Vincent H. Miller, Requiescat In Pacem, 1938-2008
Vince Miller gave his life for liberty, by living for it, giving up a lucrative career as a marketing executive in Canada to become a frostback in America, founding an educational non-profit which he headed until the day he died. Originally Libertarian International (LI), it ultimately became known as the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL).
Vince made ISIL the "Johnny Appleseed" of the freedom movement, planting the seeds of liberty wherever they might grow, all around the world. By the time he died, it had gained members in over 80 countries around the world and had hosted more than 20 world conferences. ISIL members came from all walks of life, from students & academics to businessmen, legislators, and even a couple of heads of state.
Vince had no children of his own, and he left his family back in Canada, so he made the libertarian movement his family. He treated everyone with the utmost dignity, politeness, and respect, no matter whether they were teenagers who were brand new to libertarianism, or senior government officials. ISIL conferences were his family reunions, with the advantage of having lots of new members to welcome into the family each time, as well as renewing old friendships.
Karl Hess called ISIL the place where the intellectuals and activists of the libertarian movement met, and myriad new libertarian projects were catalyzed by ISIL, from publishing and distributing libertarian books in countries where libertarianism had never been heard of before, to helping newly-freed countries write their new constitutions.
While Vince and I came to disagree about the Iraq War, his opposition to it didn't stop him from meeting with the Iraqis who were writing their new constitution when he found out that they were doing so at the same hotel in Germany where he was having an ISIL conference. So, in addition to running the conference, he found the time to meet with them to give them the best advice he possibly could about how to make the new Iraq as peaceful, prosperous, and free as possible. Vince new that liberty was too important not to seize every possible opportunity to promote it.
I first met Vince Miller at an event held at the old Laissez-Faire Books building on Howard Street in San Francisco, in 1993. I'd just recently finished working as a college campus co-ordinator for the Libertarian Party presidential campaign of Andre Marrou. Before that, I'd dropped out of UC Santa Barbara because it had turned out to be nothing more than high school with ashtrays and no roll call. Then I'd done some libertarian activist work for Robert Bakhaus in Santa Barbara, but I wasn't sure what to do next. Vince Miller told me there was _another_ libertarian bookstore in San Francisco, and invited me to check it out. I couldn't believe there could possibly be _two_ libertarian bookstores in any city in the world, much less San Francisco, which was r
RIP, Mr. Miller.
Dear Tim,
Thank you for that fine obituary. You and I have also disagreed on the Iraq war, but you have done a nice thing for Vince's memory. I am grateful.
Regards,
Jim
Commenting by HaloScan
