Here There Be Giants: Remembering H.E. “Buck” Autrey
There are people who lead companies, and there are people who become part of their very foundation.
H.E. “Buck” Autrey was the latter.
To the electrical contracting industry, he was a visionary, a respected businessman, and a leader whose influence reached far beyond Miller Electric Company. To generations of Miller employees, he was the man who helped build this company into what it is today. To his family, he was a husband, father, grandfather, and simply “Papa.”
And to all of us who have had the privilege of being part of Miller Electric, whether we knew him personally or not, Buck was a giant.
He passed away on September 8, leaving behind a company, an industry, a family, and a community forever changed because he was here.
From the Field to the Front Office
Perhaps the best way to understand Buck’s leadership is to understand where it began.
Born in Tallahassee in 1932 during the Great Depression, Buck left school in the ninth grade to help support his family. In 1949, while working days at the Purina Feed Company and nights at a local roller-skating rink, he met Betty, the woman who would become his wife and partner in life. They married on June 9, 1950, and moved to Jacksonville.
That same year, Buck began working at Miller Electric as an apprentice groundsman, earning 85 cents an hour.
He learned this business from the ground up, quite literally.
Buck completed apprenticeships as both a lineman and inside wireman and worked his way through the ranks as a journeyman electrician, foreman, general foreman, and superintendent. Eventually, an opportunity brought him into the office, where he worked double duty as an estimator while continuing to run a service truck.
Those beginnings mattered.
Buck never forgot what it was like to put in a day’s work in the field. He knew the skill the trades demanded. He understood the long days, the hard work, and the pride of building something with your own hands.
Maybe that is why, throughout his life, he held such deep respect for the men and women whose hard work and sweat built Miller Electric. He cared about the people wearing the Miller name because he had been one of them.
When the Odds Were Against Him
In 1966, Buck was asked to become president of Miller Electric.
It was hardly an enviable promotion.
The company had dwindled to roughly 40 employees and was carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Miller needed more than a businessman. It needed someone willing to stand in front of seemingly impossible odds and refuse to surrender.
Buck did exactly that.
He negotiated payment terms on the $350,000 Miller owed General Electric Supply and convinced the company to extend Miller a $1 million line of credit. Given the opportunity to purchase $55,000 in Miller Electric stock, Buck committed himself personally to the company’s future. It would take him a decade to pay off that investment.
There is something almost biblical about that chapter of Miller’s history. Buck faced his Goliath, stood his ground, and won.
But the victory did not come from a single dramatic moment. It came from what would characterize his entire career: courage, determination, relationships, hard work, and an unshakable belief that your word means something.
The company did not merely survive.
It grew.
A Handshake Meant Something
Under Buck’s leadership, Miller Electric became one of the nation’s premier electrical contractors. Some of the client relationships we value today trace their beginnings to projects Buck negotiated decades ago.
He earned those relationships the same way he earned people’s respect: by making commitments and then keeping them.
Buck believed in trust. He believed in honest dealings. He believed relationships mattered.
And although he was a formidable businessman, his leadership was never only about numbers, contracts, or projects.
It was about people.
That philosophy extended well beyond Miller Electric. Buck became a nationally respected leader within the National Electrical Contractors Association, serving two terms as NECA National President from 1979 to 1983 during a pivotal time for the industry. His leadership helped preserve the National Electrical Benefit Fund, and his contributions to apprenticeship, labor relations, and the advancement of electrical contracting earned some of the industry’s highest honors.
But titles and awards tell only part of his story.
The real measure of Buck Autrey is found in all the people who trusted him.
The Man Behind the Legend
If you ever met Buck, you knew when he entered a room.
He was strong. His voice was unmistakably loud. His presence was even bigger. He didn’t have to try to command a room. He simply did.
But what we remember most clearly is not the commanding businessman or the industry legend.
A few years ago at a dinner party, a few employees were fortunate enough to have a seat at a table with Buck and several longtime Miller employees who had since retired. These were people who had helped grow this company alongside him.
They told stories. They laughed. They gave each other a hard time. They were an absolute hoot.
And sitting there, surrounded by all that history, they saw something that no list of Buck’s accomplishments could ever adequately capture: how deeply he cared about people, and how deeply they cared about him.
For all the larger-than-life stories about Buck, there was a profoundly human truth underneath them. He loved this company because he loved its people.
And above everything else was his family.
He deeply loved Betty, his wife of more than seven decades, and the family they built together, including their four children, Susan, Ron, Sandy, and Tommy. In time, his grandsons Henry and Daniel would take up the responsibility of leading Miller Electric, carrying forward not simply a family business, but the values their grandfather spent a lifetime establishing.
His Fingerprints Are Everywhere
Henry Brown wrote something to Miller employees after his grandfather’s passing that captures Buck’s legacy beautifully: his fingerprints are on everything we do.
They are.
They are on the relationships we have kept for generations.
They are in the opportunities we give apprentices starting their own careers.
They are in our respect for the trades.
They are in our commitment to our clients and partners.
They are in our belief that integrity matters, that a person’s word matters, and that the way we treat one another matters.
They are in the expectation that we will do excellent work, take care of our people, honor our commitments, and leave something better behind for the next generation.
There will someday be Miller employees who never met Buck Autrey. In fact, there are already many who did not have that privilege. It doesn’t matter.
They will know him.
They will know him every time someone chooses integrity when the easier choice is available. They will know him when an experienced craft professional takes the time to teach an apprentice. They will know him when we keep a difficult promise to a client. They will know him when someone rolls up their sleeves because there is work to be done.
They will know him because Buck’s legacy is not hanging on a wall.
It is woven into the fabric of this company.
Here There Be Giants
There’s an old phrase referring to Renaissance mapmakers which has evolved over the years: “Here There Be Dragons.”
At Miller Electric, ours is different.
Here There Be Giants.
Because a giant once started here as an apprentice earning 85 cents an hour.
A giant stepped forward when this company’s future was uncertain.
A giant helped power our future, building a company that would create livelihoods, careers, communities, relationships, and opportunities he could scarcely have imagined when he first walked through Miller’s doors in 1950.
A giant loved this company enough to ask the generations behind him to make it even better.
And now, that giant has left his footprints for us to follow.
Buck Autrey will be profoundly missed. But he will never truly leave Miller Electric. His presence is too deeply ingrained in who we are, how we work, and what we believe.
We stand on his shoulders.
We walk in his footprints.
And it is now our responsibility to leave footprints worthy of his.
Here There Be Giants.
And Miller Electric will forever be home to one of the greatest.
