Carl E. Miller, 76, of Hemet, died from heart failure the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007, at Hemet Valley Medical Center after being admitted with chest pains a few hours earlier.

He was born Jan. 7, 1931, to Charles P. Miller of Missouri and Pearl Jacobs Miller of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Miller served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War from 1948 to 1952 where he was a chief petty officer first class. He worked as an electronics engineer on the USS Pickaway.

He retired from American Savings and Loan in 1987 as vice president after more than 20 years with the company. He served in several capacities, including managing both the data processing and systems and procedures departments.

Formerly, he was with Great Western Savings, IBM, Hughes Aircraft and Arden Farms Dairy.

Mr. Miller was a 32-degree Mason with the Yucaipa-San Gorgonio Chapter and the Metropolitan-Downey Lodge. He also was a member of the Scottish Rite, as well as an Al Malaikah Shriner.

He was a member of the Antique Automobile Club and participated in parades and other club events with his family in his 1917 Dodge Touring Car in the 1950s.

He was an avid reader and an ice hockey fan. He played tournament darts in the 1980s and was in a bowling league in the early 1960s.

He also enjoyed the performing arts, including opera, Shakespearean plays and classical music, as well as popular musicals and live theater.

During the last several years, he became a bullfight aficionado and enjoyed going to Mexico to watch the fights. He loved to travel, not only to many places in the U.S. and Canada, but Europe, South America, Thailand, Portugal and Spain. In 1994, he treated his family to a memorable, weeklong cruise in the Caribbean, and he completed a 105-day around-the-world cruise earlier this year.

Mr. Miller had a pilot’s license, and enjoyed both sailing boats and soaring in gliders.

He was good at games of chance and played successfully in world championship blackjack tournaments in Las Vegas, as well as actively trading in the stock market.

He enjoyed hiking and backpacking, and was a Sierra Club member during the 1980s.

He enjoyed gourmet dining and fine wines, and was a partner in a wholesale wine business in the 1970s. He enjoyed participating in a wine-tasting group both as taster and teacher.

He moved to Idyllwild from Brea in Orange County in 1994, and moved to Hemet in the summer of 2005.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at Miller-Jones Mortuary in Hemet.

Mr. Miller is survived by his wife, Betty Miller, of Idyllwild; two sons, Jerry Miller of Aliso Viejo and Steve Miller and his wife, Valerie Miller, of Phoenix; a daughter, Karen Shackelford Keller and her husband, Nelson Keller, of Idyllwild; eight grandchildren, John-Mason Shackelford of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Benjamin Shackelford of Huntington Beach, Jeremiah Shackelford of Idyllwild, April, Tessa and Charlie Miller of Phoenix, and Christopher and Philip Miller of Atlanta; and three great-grandchildren, Helen, Beatrice and Nathaniel Shackelford of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.