From Electrician to Policeman in A Day
The city of El Paso had allocated funds to the wrong departments and so the police had their pick of which men would get to ‘join’ the force. My grandfather was one of the men chosen. He was working as an electrician for the city when told “you start at the police department tomorrow or you are out of a job.” Needless to say, he came home that evening and announced to his young bride “it looks like I’m a police officer now.”
Robert “Bob” Jackson Miner, was born in 1926 in St Jacobs Illinois to George Dalton Miner and Gertrude “Gertie” Elizabeth Williams.
Bob, focused and dedicated went on to become a detective and learn the law better than most lawyers in town. Him and his partner, another lucky man chosen (formerly a firefighter), once caught the most wanted man in America by happenstance.
Before this time, Bob grew up in Illinois, graduated from Beaumont High School in 1944, and shortly after was drafted into WWII at age 18.
Robert J. Miner Senior picture 
Robert J. Miner graduation, 1944 
Robert J. Miner in Army
A few years later, he would find himself living and working at a local YMCA in Texas. It was here that he met and fell in love with the fiery redhead Joan “Pat.” Pat was eating popcorn by the pool and chatting with friends where Bob was lifeguarding. As the story goes, Bob told Pat that she couldn’t eat at the pool and she needed to throw it away. Never backing down, Pat continued to argue with him about this rule until she had finished her popcorn and won his heart. The two eloped, on June 28, 1947, out of state to hide the news from her family, which, as it happens, did not stay hidden long due to an observant aunt.
But what I remember most about him was his playfulness. Grandpa Miner would wear goofy glasses, wigs, and hats just to make us laugh. He would fax drawings back and forth with us grandkids with caricatures of us with noses made of pickles and crazy hats. It’s the little things like this that I cherish most.
Favorite quote: “Once a gentleman, always a gentleman”
Dickens
Robert “Bob” Jackson Miner
September 6, 1926-August 25, 1997
