The Epic life of: Larry H. Miller.

• Author: Schulte, Scott
• Position: Spotlight - Biography

Greg Miller recalls countless memories of his father, the late Larry H. Miller, but says one in particular sums up his father's keen business sense. After driving a short distance to Salt Lake to grab a bite to eat, the elder Miller drove past a parking spot available right in front of the restaurant.

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"My dad drove by it and I asked what he was doing," Greg Miller says. "It was a great spot, right there. My father explained that he wanted to find a spot that had more time on the meter, so he wouldn't have to put any money in it."

Larry Miller, the master of Salt Lake business, found his spot. "We ended up walking as far as we would have if we'd just walked from where we had started at the meeting," Greg Miller says. "But to my father, he'd made the right decision because he saved himself a little bit of money, even though it was a very small amount."

A Business Legacy

With drive and self-motivation, Larry Miller built himself into a successful entrepreneur and multi-millionaire business leader. Born to a father who worked in an oil refinery and a homemaker mother in 1959, Miller planted the seeds for his future early in life. As a school boy, Miller used his savvy natural business skills to acquire more baseball cards, marbles, stamps and other childhood goodies than the average kid in the neighborhood. He had an innate ability to turn nothing into something and then into something big.

Upon graduating from Salt Lake's West High in 1962, Miller began working as a framer with his uncle's construction company. The following year, Miller moved to Denver where he played professional fast pitch softball and became parts manager with Stevenson Toyota dealership. As the velocity of his pitches increased, so did sales in the parts department. In fact, Miller took the Stevenson parts department from one of the worst in the country to the top selling department in the nation--all in less than three years. Under Miller's guidance, Stevenson became the first Toyota dealership in the nation to ever earn $1 million in a year and then $2 million in a year.

In an article published on May 2, 1999, Gene Osborn, a partner in the Stevenson dealership said, "Larry did a phenomenal job. He was intense and committed to his job."

It was that intensity and confidence that brought Miller back to Salt Lake where he made his big mark. On May 1, 1979, the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies was officially born when Miller opened Larry H. Miller...