Carlyle Miller Otto

Carlyle Miller Otto passed away on September 5, 2024 in Crofton, Maryland. She was 101. 

Louise Carlyle Miller was born on Oct 4, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She went by her middle name, Carlyle, all her life. Her father, Edward E. Miller, a lifelong employee of Proctor and Gamble, was known for his carpentry skills, having built treehouses, camping trailers, and much of his own house. Carlyle’s mother, Louise McKee, was a homemaker.
 
Carlyle attended Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati—ranked as the best public high school in Ohio and one of the best in the US—and attended Miami University of Ohio for two years as an art major. She went on to earn a B.A degree in English from Barnard College (now part of Columbia University) in New York.

Carlyle married Ingolf H.E. Otto, a US Army officer and later economics professor, in 1943. They were divorced in 1960.

While still young, Carlyle distinguished herself by completing a solo bicycle trip across the state of Ohio. During WWII, she worked part-time as an auto mechanic.

Carlyle was involved with music her whole life, beginning with a children’s choir, a junior choir, various church choirs including the renowned St. Paul’s Chapel Choir under the direction of Dr. Lowell Beveridge, and ultimately, as an organist and choir director at various Episcopalian churches well into her 70s.

Carlyle began working professionally as a draughtswoman for the Bendix Corporation in the 1960s and later became a computer programmer and systems analyst for AT&T and the US government.

Not one to back down, in the 1960’s Carlyle once responded to a USMC supervisor’s lack of interest in having enlisted male employees remove topless pinup photos from behind their desks by posting an anatomically correct photo of Michelangelo’s statue of David behind hers. All were taken down the next day, but not before the press had gleefully picked up the story.

After moving to Staunton, VA, Carlyle designed and had built to her specifications two retirement homes as well as a newly formed church—St. David’s Anglican Church—in Charlottesville, VA. Her designs were given to an architect to bring up to code, and the church was built to those specifications and is still used for services today.

Carlyle is survived by her sons George (78) and Richard (77), Richard’s wife Karen (76) and their daughters Katy (46) and Amanda (43), and four grandchildren: Sydney (19), David (9), Tabitha (4), and Frances (3). She was predeceased by her parents, by her older sister Marjorie, who passed away at age 100 in 2020 at Otterbein in Centerville, Ohio, and by her former husband Ingolf H.E. Otto, who passed away in Annapolis, MD in 2004 at age 83.
 
Carlyle spent the last years of her life with visits from her family in Crofton, MD. She had a particularly memorable 100th birthday celebration in 2022, surrounded by her loving family, who continue to remember her dearly in this hour of her passing.