NEW CANAAN, Conn. -- Joseph H. Miller, an insurance executive and president of the Order of Malta, died July 20 after a short illness. He was 73 years old.

Miller was born April 25, 1938, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He attended Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., on a basketball scholarship and graduated in 1960. He remained an active alumnus and received the Professor Egon Plager Award in 2010 for advancing the welfare of human beings. Miller worked in the insurance and investments industries. In 1992, he and his son, Joel, founded the New Canaan Group, a financial planning firm specializing in wealth management and insurance planning services. The firm is now located in Stamford. Miller began his business career as an agent for AXA/Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1960 and climbed the ranks to district manager, vice president and agency manager. Through his long, successful career with AXA/Equitable, he and his wife and children lived in Pennsylvania, California and Texas before settling in New Canaan in 1978. Miller became a member of the American Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1993 and was elected president in 2009. The order has a world-wide membership and serves the sick and the poor in hospitals and aids disaster victims around the world. It is the oldest lay religious order of the Catholic Church, dating to the Crusades. Joseph headed the order until his death. He served as Chancellor of the order since 2004 and went on 19 pilgrimages to Lourdes, France. Miller was a founding member of the Innercity Foundation for Charity and Education for the Bridgeport Diocese, an organization that raises nearly $4 million a year to support non-sectarian charities and Catholic schools in the Bridgeport Diocese. He recently served as secretary of the board and chairman of the Education Committee. For the past 10 years he served as a member of the board of directors for Catholic Charities, the largest private family-service agency in the region. Additionally, he was a member of the board of directors and instrumental in the development of Malta House in Norwalk, a home for single, homeless, pregnant women. He was also an avid golfer and a member of Woodway Country Club in Darien and Wyndemere in Naples, Fla. In addition to Barbara, his wife of 48 years, he is survived by two sons, Joseph H. Miller III and wife, Judith, of New Canaan, and Christopher P. Miller and his wife, Victoria, of Suwanee, Ga.; three daughters, Beth MacInnes and her husband, Benjamin, of Rowayton, Allison Lesson and her husband, Mark, of Rowayton, and Meghan Creedon of McKinney, Tex., and 19 grandchildren.  Viewing hours will be Wednesday, July 27, from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Hoyt Funeral Home, 199 Main St., New Canaan. A Mass will be celebrated Thursday, July 28, at 11 a.m. at St. Aloysius Church, 21 Cherry St., New Canaan. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial contributions be made to Malta Human Services Foundation (www.maltausa.org), 1011 First Ave., Suite 1350, New York, NY 10022, or to Innercity Foundation for Charity and Education (www.innercityfoundation.org), 238 Jewett Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06606. For online condolences and directions, visit the Hoyt Funeral Home website.

Did you know Joseph Miller? Leave a memory below. 

Click here to follow Daily Voice New Canaan and receive free news updates.