FRENCHTOWN TWP. – A few tables at Al Miller’s birthday party were reserved just for pool players.

Miller turned 100 years old May 21, and was honored recently at Frenchtown Center for Active Adults.

Miller, a center member since 1997, plays pool there every week and is part of the Men’s Pool League.

“Mr. Al Miller comes to the center every Thursday to play 8 ball pool. Since he does not drive anymore, his friend Bart Burguard, is his ‘Uber driver,’” said Chrissy Pidruzny, the center’s office manager.

Miller may not drive, but he does live alone in the home he built decades ago for his family. He still cuts his grass and clears weeds from his ditch.

Dozens of people, many of them pool players, turned out for the party, which included lunch, birthday cake, tributes and music by the Floral City Harmonizers. Proclamations were read by representatives from the offices of Sen. Joseph Bellino Jr., R-Monroe, and Rep. Jim DeSana, R-Carleton.

Frenchtown Township Supervisor Al VanWashenova marveled at a life spanning more than a century.

“What the world went through, and you got to witness it. It’s just amazing,” he told Miller.

The Pool League presented Miller with a plaque, calling him its first 100-year-old member who’s still an active pool player.

Miller never expected to see 100. His grandmother held the previous family record, age 92.

“My wife told me I’d make it to 100,” Miller said.

The centenarian married Wilma in 1943. After 60 years of marriage, Wilma died in 2009, at age 85. The couple had two sons, Gary and Larry. Larry died in 2021, at age 75. Gary and other family member were at the birthday party.

Miller’s life includes professional baseball, polio, several careers and, of course, pool.

Born May 21, 1924, Miller is one of three children of Carl and Elizabeth Miller.

He attended Monroe’s one-room Bridge Schoo,l and graduated in 1941 from Dundee High School, where he was a baseball pitcher.

Many in Dundee wanted Miller to play college baseball, but he didn’t have the money for college. Instead, he signed a professional baseball league contract to play outfield for the Boston Bruins. He played one spring training and came home to help Wilma and their young sons.

When his son, Gary, contracted polio at age 5, Miller handled his physical therapy.

“He came home from the University of Michigan for care,” Miller said. “I had to put him in a tub with water at 140 degrees. He stayed in until he couldn’t stand it. He’d scream. We did that every day. We went back, and they couldn’t believe he was walking.”

Miller had several jobs through the years. He ground grain all over Michigan and worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Bomber Plant. He owned Ida’s Miller Insurance Agency. For 36 years he was a construction foreman for Gratton Construction of Monroe.

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Construction work and baseball, though, took a toll on Miller’s legs, and he retired at the age of 62.

Today, he enjoys going to the Frenchtown Center for Active Adults, where he also plays cards.

“He’s an inspiring example to everyone,” Pidruzny said.

— Contact reporter Suzanne Nolan Wisler at swisler@monroenews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Frenchtown Center celebrates 100-year-old member, Al Miller