Asked in 1996 to describe his interests outside his work as a carpenter, Martin K. “Marty” Miller said, “My relationship with Jesus, my family, my neighborhood and fishing.”

He was touched by the turmoil of the 1960s as the son of Lawrence activists who founded Penn House, a then-controversial agency to help the needy help themselves.

As he grew up, he immersed himself in Christianity, eventually becoming chairman of the board of Veritas Christian School, 256 N. Mich.

He is a self-employed carpenter, whose business The Carpenter’s Shop is operated out of his home. His furniture work has been shown as art in exhibits in Lawrence.

He helped found the Centennial Neighborhood Assn. and has been a chaperone for the Lawrence Children’s Choir.

And now, in a turn of events that has stunned the community, the 45-year-old Miller is being held in Douglas County Jail, charged with killing his wife of 25 years early July 28 at the family’s home at 21st and Carolina streets.

A prosecutor said it didn’t appear any links would be revealed between the murder charge and the Millers’ many community activities.

Public, private lives

“There is nothing about the investigation that would reflect upon any of those groups,” Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney said.

Martin Miller is charged with the first-degree murder of his wife, Mary. Miller, a self-employed businessman, was active in numerous community activities and causes in Lawrence before his arrest.

Instead, the case will center on the couple’s private life — a fact that might help explain why, almost universally, “shock” is the word people who know the Millers are using to describe their reaction to events since Mary E. Miller, a Kansas University librarian, was found dead.

At first, police said it appeared she had died of natural causes. Then, days later, they arrested Marty Miller after a coroner conducted an autopsy and ruled the death of Miller’s wife a homicide.

The autopsy report has not been released to the public. Kenney has declined to say why or how prosecutors think Mary Miller, 46, was killed until the facts come out in court. The couple’s two junior-high aged children, who were home at the time, are listed as witnesses in the case.

The mix of seemingly incongruous facts and mystery surrounding the case has fueled speculation about what happened in the Miller house that morning — and concern.

Carpenter, librarian

Last week, someone placed flowers on a wooden boat in the family’s front yard at 2105 Carolina St. The home is instantly recognizable for its lighthouse and posts linked with rope, a nautical motif Marty Miller built as a barrier to keep drivers from cutting across the family’s yard as they turned the corner.

Homicide charge filed in wife’s death (8-3-04) 6News video: Husband charged in wife’s death (8-2-04) Arrest leaves neighbors shocked (8-1-04) Spouse faces murder charge (7-31-04) 6News video: Lawrence woman slain, husband arrested (7-30-04)

Asked about the project in 1994, he described himself as an idea collector who wanted to make a use for old telephone poles that had been replaced along 21st Street.

“I started wandering through my idea file,” he told the Journal-World. “All I really wanted was an unusual barrier, something decorative.”

As technology coordinator for Watson Library’s reference department, Mary Miller often came into contact with students who needed help using computers to do research for papers. Dean of Libraries Stella Bentley described Mary Miller as a “super employee” who had been with the libraries for more than two decades.

Mary Miller also put her literary skills to use by helping start the Centennial Neighborhood Assn. newsletter in the early 1990s.

1960s upbringing

Marty Miller’s father, KU human development and family life professor L. Keith Miller, reached at home by telephone last week, politely declined to talk about his son.

Keith Miller and his wife, Ocoee, an herbalist and gardener who teaches courses about plants’ healing properties, founded Penn House, 1035 Pa., in 1969 after moving to Lawrence from Illinois. The cooperative helped low-income people learn life and job skills, but the Millers became involved in a conflict with black activist Leonard Harrison, who objected to a white couple running a program that largely served blacks.

Harrison’s campaign to wrest control of Penn House from the Millers was documented in Rusty Monhollon’s 2002 book, “This is America? The Sixties in Lawrence, Kansas.” When Penn House was bombed in the summer of 1970, Ocoee Miller said it could have been the work of black militants or white vigilantes, both of whom disliked the agency, according to the book.

“That was such a significant chapter in our family’s history,” Ocoee Miller told the Journal-World in 2002. “I remember having our house staked out at night, and having to tell the kids never to let anybody in and never to let anybody know where their parents were. It was a very scary time for us.”

Board resignation

Beyond expressing shock and their concern for the couple’s children, many of the Millers’ acquaintances are declining to talk about the family. Some say it’s because of the pending case. Others say they simply don’t have any insights.

The Rev. Leo Barbee Jr., pastor at Victory Bible Church, 1942 Mass., said that last Sunday he suggested to all members of the church that they not comment to the media about the Millers, who were members of the congregation.

“We are just shocked at the situation right now,” Barbee said.

Saturday evening the sign outside the church bore the message, “Every body dies. Mary Miller lives for Jesus.”

A memorial service for Mary Miller is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the church.

Leaders of Veritas Christian School also have declined to talk about the Millers. School administrator Jeff Barclay did say Friday that Marty Miller resigned as chairman of the school’s board of directors immediately after the arrest “to avoid any embarrassment to the school.”

The arrest comes as the 135-student, nondenominational school is planning an expansion to an undeveloped 13-acre site south of Lawrence. When the school acquired the land earlier this year as a gift, Miller called it an act of God.

“There is absolutely no question in my mind: God has his hand on the ministry of this school,” he told the Journal-World at the time.

Support network

The school has had several pastors and a Christian counseling agency on call to talk with anyone who needed help, but so far they haven’t been called in, Barclay said.

Barbee said there had been an “awesome response” among people wanting to find out how they can help the Millers’ children. Church officials are trying to figure out whether an account to accept donations should be set up through the church or through a bank, he said.

“The children are being cared for,” Dist. Atty. Kenney said. “A lot of individuals are making them their priority right now. A lot of people are making sure the children are safe and are helping them get through this as best as possible.”

Pending case

Marty Miller’s community ties extend even into the District Attorney’s Office. Scott McPherson, an assistant prosecutor, is a member of the Veritas board of directors.

Kenney said McPherson wouldn’t be involved in Miller’s case and that it wasn’t a conflict of interest.

“I’m confident that won’t have any bearing on how we handle and prosecute this case,” she said.

Miller remains in the Douglas County Jail with bond set at $150,000. He is scheduled for a court appearance Aug. 19 to schedule a preliminary hearing. His attorney, Michael Riling, appeared Friday in district court to make a request that Kenney’s office preserve all potentially exculpatory evidence.

Kenney called the request a formality that emphasized something prosecutors already were required to do.

Riling said that even he had only a limited knowledge of the facts of the case at this point.

“There are no police reports that are available yet and no other documents,” he said. “We’re just waiting to see what we’ve got.”