A Sydney University law course offer was on the table, but Geoff Miller wasn’t convinced.
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His dad was an accountant and he always liked working with “the mathematical side of issues”.
That decision more than 40 years ago to instead stay in Albury and study accountancy by correspondence paid huge dividends.
It has delivered a successful career – and valued links through it to the community – and now the plaudits of his peers.
On Friday night Mr Miller was supposed to be in Sydney to be honoured by the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
He was to receive a special certificate of commendation marking 40 years since he became a member after qualifying as a chartered accountant.
But instead he decided to stay home because of more pressing commitments.
“I’m also involved in the Albury Race Club and we race out here on Saturday, so unfortunately I couldn’t attend,” he said.
A humbled Mr Miller said he would not think there were too many others around town to be acknowledged in such a way.
“It’s a great honour to be recognised by your peers and the amount of time you’ve been involved in doing something that you so enjoy,” he said.
“It’s your life’s work really.”
Mr Miller’s love of economics, commerce and maths at Aquinas College (now Xavier High) was what clinched his decision to forgo law for accountancy.
Instead of university he studied by correspondence through the institute, which set its own exams.
That took four years of working for an Albury firm by day and studying by night, followed by an intense professional year of practical work in the field.
Mr Miller said he had especially enjoyed the interaction with so many people across the community and his workmates.
Some of his clients stretch back 30 years.
For the past 20 years his career has been about his business, Miller and Partners Chartered Accountants.
“I don’t think, God willing, that I’ll be pulling up stumps any time shortly,” he said.