Town of Windsor

Memorial Day Observance

Deacon Arthur L. Miller, Vietnam Era Veteran, Will Serve as Memorial Day Parade Marshal on Monday, May 29th

On Monday, May 29, 2023, an observance will be held at the Elm Grove Cemetery located in Poquonock beginning at 8:00 AM followed by a ceremony at Veteran’s Cemetery at 9:00 AM.  Following the ceremony at Veteran’s Cemetery, the Memorial Day Parade will proceed to Windsor Town Hall via Poquonock Avenue. The parade usually arrives in the center of town between 9:45 AM and 10:00 AM. The 10:00 AM ceremony at town hall will include a special flag ceremony performed by members of Windsor scouting.

This year’s Parade Marshal is Deacon Arthur L. Miller.  He is an author, radio, and former television host, Viet Nam era veteran and veteran civil rights worker. Deacon Miller is the retired owner and president of A. Miller investments. Miller was ordained for the Archdiocese of Hartford in 2004. He recently retired as the director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries.

In case of rain, one single ceremony is held at 10:00 AM in the Town Hall Council Chambers. Contact Enita Jubrey at 860-285-1835 with any other questions.

Schedule of Events

8:00 AM Elm Grove Cemetery

9:00 AM Veteran’s Cemetery

March to Windsor Town Hall

10:00 AM Windsor Town Hall

2023 Memorial Day

Parade Marshal

Deacon Arthur L. Miller
Vietnam Era Veteran

Deacon, author, radio, and former television host, Viet Nam era veteran and veteran civil rights worker. Deacon Miller is the retired owner and president of A. Miller investments. Miller was ordained for the Archdiocese of Hartford in 2004. He recently retired as the director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries.

Besides his assigned parish, he is the Adjunct faculty for Holy Family Retreat Center in West Hartford, CT> Our Lady of Calvary Retreat Center in Farmington, CT. and The Josephinum Diaconate Institute, Columbus Ohio.

Deacon Miller was arrested and jailed during the summer of 1963 as he sat in silent protest over the sustained use of racial bigotry to separate black Americans from the imbued rights of all Americans. Continuing the struggle for those oppressed he was again arrested in October of 2015 while protesting against the same racial injustices that continue to sully the dignity of America.

A nationally known preacher of God’s Holy Scripture, he has traveled throughout the country raising the need of conversion to “Radical Love”. The kind of self-denying love that can only be accomplished through the grace and power offered to us through Jesus Christ. Deacon Miller has preached throughout the United States, from New England to the southern states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, from the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico and Colorado, the broad plains of Kansas, the far west states of California and Washington, to the south side of Chicago, and the borough of Brooklyn in New York, he teaches and preaches Christ’s call to His life changing “Radical Love”. 

At public forums, houses of worship, schools and universities across the country, Deacon Miller addresses issues of social injustice. With firsthand knowledge he speaks to his audiences from the perspective of an African American who grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. Deacon Miller was 10 years old in 1955 when his schoolmate Emmett Till, age 14, was brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman—an incident that energized the nascent Civil Rights Movement. His recently released book “The Journey to Chatham”, details the historic events seen through the eyes of Emmett’s friends.

Deacon Miller is a certified trainer in Dr. King’s nonviolence philosophy as well as a Certified Spiritual Director, a board member for Connecticut Center for Nonviolence, Connecticut against Gun Violence org, and consultant with New England Public Schools. Has received awards for his work for peace from Anti-Defamation League, National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, Connecticut 100 Black Men, Archdiocese of Hartford Award for Social Justice, Hartford Courant Newspaper’s Hometown Hero Award, Connecticut Peace Center Man of the year and several others. 

To this day he continues to addresses 21st-century examples of the societal tendency to embrace violence. Echoing the thoughts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he believes that as part of the great human experience, no one can sit idly tolerant of the great injustices that happen anywhere in the world.
“If God were to give us an 11th commandment,” Deacon Miller proposes, “I believe it would read: Thou shall not be a bystander.”