Robert Mason Mills
50-year Peters Township resident was U.S. Steel retiree and avid outdoorsman
Robert Mason “Bob” Mills passed away peacefully Friday, December 27, 2013, in Kent, Wash. He had been battling cardiovascular disease and advancing dementia for a few years.
He was born April 7, 1924, in Duquesne, the second son of Dr. William Woolslaer McCleary Mills and Louisa Carr Rhodes Mills.
Deceased are his parents; his loving wife, Dorothy Frances Fiedler Mills, who passed in January 2006; and his youngest child, Thomas Randolph Mills, who died in November 1993. His older brother, William W.M. Mills Jr., passed in December 2003.
Surviving are son Robert Mason “Rob” Mills II and longtime partner Jon Perdue of Walnut Creek, Calif.; daughter Kathleen Lynn Mills Cheritt and partner Mark Lucas of Kent; sister-in-law Dorothy Strohsahl Fiedler of Holland, Pa.; nephew Richard Lionel Fiedler and wife Charlotte of Royersford; niece Janet Fiedler Andes and husband Bob of Richboro; and niece Mary Lou Mills and spouse Janet Roslund of Monongahela and The Villages, Fla.
With direct lineage to some of the earliest pioneers to cross the Allegheny Mountains in the early decades the 1700s, his roots can be traced through the Mills, McKinney, Snodgrass, Laird, Baldridge and McCleary families. Fifth great-grandfather Timothy Mills came from England and settled on Jamaica Bay, Long Island, New York, in 1656. Fourth great-grandfather Nathaniel Mills moved to Morristown, N.J., about 1700. His third great-grandfather, Matthew McKinney, was born in Elizabeth Township in 1744. His second great-grandfather, Stephen Mills, purchased about 400 acres along the Monongahela River in 1801, comprising what are now the Boroughs of Braddock and North Braddock.
His great-grandfather, Isaac Mills Sr., laid out the plan for the borough and was the first burgess of the new Borough of Braddock. The Isaac Mills family mansion stood on the brow of the hill along Mills Avenue between Fifth and Sixth streets. This stately home became Braddock’s first hospital in 1902. The Mills family mausoleum still stands at the very center of Monongahela Cemetery in Braddock Hills, although the vaults have long been sealed. Grandfather Stephen Mills and great-uncle James Mills were founders and proprietors of Braddock Brick Works. Great uncle Charles Mills was founder and publisher of Braddock Daily News.
His father, Dr. William Woolslaer McCleary Mills, was a general practitioner and surgeon in Duquesne for many decades as well a chief of emergency services at McKeesport Hospital, head of pathology at Homestead Hospital and one of a very few doctors to maintain an active medical license in the state for more than 60 years. He really looked up to and admired his dad. His mother, Louisa Carr Rhodes, came from a prominent McKeesport family, who were proprietors of a dry goods business for many decades. His uncle, John Rhodes, served in the Pennsylvania Legislature for more than 20 years.
When he was born, the family lived at 217 North Second Street in Duquesne. He played stick-ball in the alley behind the house and worked summers at Kennywood Park. He graduated from Duquesne High School in spring 1941. He then spent the 1941-42 school year at Mercersburg Academy, a college preparatory boarding school in Franklin County, where he exceled at soccer and swimming.
Having reached the age of 18 in April 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in summer 1942. He went off to flight school at Lackland Air Base in San Antonio, Texas, and earned his wings in 1944 as a second lieutenant. He was trained as a pilot of B-17, B-24 and B-25 bombers. Although he was never sent into action overseas, he loved to fly and always spoke of those years with great fondness for his captain and crew. He also looked up to his big brother, Bill, who was five years older and a captain and pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He flew more than 25 missions across Europe and retired as a lieutenant colonel from the Air Force Reserve.
As a young man, his father, Dr. Will, would take him along to visit their 300-acre farm, really just woodland and meadows, in Fulton County, south of Harrisonville, along Licking and Owl creeks, where they would hunt for fowl and small game. It was here where they would share the friendship of the Deshong and Strait families, which continues to this day.
Another treasured place he held close in his heart was a very rustic cold-water, two-room cabin along Medix Run, north of Clearfield. This is where he went deer hunting with his college fraternity brothers. It is a place his wife loved as well, and they spent some quiet time there every year.
After his military discharge, Mr. Mills enrolled at Grove City College. After one year, he transferred to Allegheny College, Meadville. There, he met his future wife, Dottie Fiedler, and made many lifelong friends. He majored in English for his bachelor of arts, and he was a fraternity brother at Phi Gamma Delta.
After they graduated from Allegheny in spring 1951, they were married September 22, 1951, at St. Mark’s Methodist Church in Rockville Centre, Long Island, N.Y., the town where she had been raised and graduated from Southside High School.
That autumn, they settled into an apartment in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood and took the trolley downtown. Mr. Mills worked for the National Tube division of U.S. Steel, and Mrs. Mills was a secretary. In 1954, they moved to McGrann Hills in Peters Township in Washington County. With their third child, son TR, born in 1963, they had outgrown their small house on Highway View Road. They found a lovely acre of maple and elm trees on Robinhood Lane and built their dream house, a three-story colonial “in the woods” of Giant Oaks. They resided in Peters Township for more than 50 years.
Mr. Mills was an avid outdoorsman; he simply loved to be out-of-doors. He enjoyed to hunt, fish and camp, and he instilled and nurtured the enjoyment of the out-of-doors in his three kids and wife Dottie, his self-proclaimed “child bride.” He was a life member of the National Rifle Association and strong advocate of firearm safety. He was certified by the Pennsylvania Game Commission as a hunters safety instructor and conducted courses for many years. He was an excellent marksman, whether rifle, shotgun or pistol, and re-loaded most of his ammunition. He was a top-notch amateur photographer. Later in life, he went deer hunting with his .357 Magnum and his 35mm with telephoto zoom lens.
He was a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and wrote a weekly column called “Outdoor Outlook” for the Observer-Reporter in the 1970s. He was a protégé and friend of Dr. Roger Latham, who then was the outdoor editor of the Pittsburgh Press. He and his wife took the three kids in the Buick station wagon with the Starcraft tent-camper in tow and visited most of the National Parks in the Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes, the Northeast and the Appalachians during the ’60s and ’70s. He was one of the founding committee members of Boy Scout Troop 320, sponsored by Trinity United Methodist Church in Peters Township, and taught merit badges in marksmanship, hunting and fishing.
After his retirement from U.S. Steel and his wife’s retirement from Peters Township government as planning director, they enjoyed making trips to various places: the Eastern shore in summer, Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii, Ontario, Canada and the Great Lakes, the streams of West Virginia and to Washington and California states to see their kids. Their 50th wedding anniversary was spent with family in Rocky Mountain National Park along the Big Thompson River in Estes Park, Colo., in September 2001.
Many pictures of family and friends and other info will be posted on DotAndBobMills.com in the next few weeks. Children Kathy and Rob can be reached at Info@DotAndBobMills.com. The family suggests donations to Carnegie Free Library of Braddock (Carnegie’s very first library), McKeesport Heritage Center, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy or National Wildlife Federation. As per his wishes, he has been cremated, and no memorial services are planned.
His family says Cheers! to him as he and his wife are together once again to enjoy a Pennsylvania martini.