b'A llcommunitiesexperiencepeaksandvalleysoverthe course of their histories, often most influenced by events that are beyond human control, like natural disasters and droughts. The ultimate and long-term fate of any region is inevitably determined by the resilience of its citizens and, of course, the extent of the challenges that are there to be overcomestrength of leadership, often the wild card.At the turn of the 20th Century, Galveston was very much the charmed city in all of Texas, with a population of almost 40,000, a thriving cotton port, and investments by some of the most famous financiers in New York. In the world of high finance, Galvestons Strand was referred to as the Wall Street of the South for the level of trade that was being conducted, and the millions of dol-lars that were flowing into the city from the East Coast. It all changed on September 8, 1900, when a monster hurricane struck with little notice, and no chance for those on the island to evacuate to higher ground on the mainland. An estimated 8,000 people died, and the city was virtually flattened in what is still the worst natural disaster in American history. Gal- Above: Postcard art of the original lift bridge at the entrance of the Port of Corpus Christi, which veston never fully recovered, and the immense commercial opportunities that once emerged on the island migrated to safer ground inland, to Houston. opened in 1926, following decades of effort by Mayor Roy Miller and other Coastal Bend leaders. Less than two decades later, the favored coastal city in Texas was CorpusMiddle: The magnificent Nueces Hotel opened in 1913, the year Miller was elected mayor at age 29. Christi, which had survived a nearly-as-powerful hurricane in 1916 that wipedBottom: Corpus Christi High School on Leopard St. was renamed Roy Miller High School in 1950.out Port Aransas, but slid inland south of the city near Baffin Bay and over the sparsely-populated King Ranch, causing little loss of man-made structures and few human lives. A false sense of security permeated over the level of hurricane protection that our barrier islands provided the city, which ended up being used as a sales point for Mayor Henry Pomeroy Roy Miller and business leaders who were in pursuit of a new, deep-water port on Corpus Christi Bay.Mayor Miller would leave office eight months before the Great Hurricane of 1919 that devastated Corpus Christi and cost almost 1,000 lives. The former mayors family home on North Beach was destroyed, and many of his neigh-bors and those with whom he had served in City government were lost. Less than a year after his three-term tenure as mayor, followed by an unsuccessful campaign for a fourth, Roy Millers most important contributions to the city and country he loved still lay ahead.A Rapid Rise to RespectBlue Rapids, Kansas, in the post-Civil War era was a milling town that thrived on the availability of water power from the nearby Big Blue and Little Blue Rivers. Roy was born there to David and Chloe Miller on March 27, 1884, the family soon moving to Houston. These days, a young Roy Miller would be considered highly-gifted, which for him immediately led to academic and businessyes, businesssuccess. By age ten, Roy ran three newspaper routes for the Houston Post and was working as a street reporter while still in high school, which he graduated at age 15 as valedictorian.Roy Miller attended the prestigious University of Chicago on a full academic scholarship, excelling in debate and journalism. After college, he returned to the Houston Post, employed as Railroad Editor, a beat of vital importance at the top newspaper in one of the countrys fastest-growing industrial hubsall by the age of 20. While working as an editor, he was recruited as an advertis-ing director for the Sunset Central Railway, a position which led to his intro-duction to Robert Kleberg, the former lawyer to the legendary Richard King, founder of the King Ranch empire. Kleberg took over management of Kings expansive business and land holdings, following his death in 1885 and at the request of his widow, Henrietta King.TheCoastalBend.com THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE65'