Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/C.O.G. Miller

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. W.marsh 19:39, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] C.O.G. Miller

C.O.G. Miller (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) - (View log)

Californian businessman of low notability against WP:BIO. I gave it the benefit of the doubt when it was prodded in Dec, but no-one's established any real notability. He existed, he ran a business, he's got a gravestone - and there's a Stanford professorship named after him. But being a philanthropic donor isn't automatically encyclopedic. Unless there's some new evidence out there, I say Delete. Mereda 10:07, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

• Keep Reluctant, but I think the professorship puts him over the top. Someone, hearing the name of the chair at Stanford, might seek info on him.--Wehwalt 10:11, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
• Neutral for now. That said, he was also president of the West Coast Life Insurance Company (1917-1919)[1] and was Vice-President of the Pacific-Union Club (1921-1922)[2]. Not certain if any of that contributes to his notability, however. The Eisenhower presidential library has record of correspondence between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Miller regarding the Bohemian Club, but I'm somewhat doubtful that its anything substantive. Anyone with better access to California historical records have anything else? Serpent's Choice 12:04, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Comment - you're probably right about the significance of the Bohemian Club correspondence. I don't think the PUC connection is more significant - membership there tends to indicate that you've got money and the right ancestry (even more so in the subject's lifetime). I'll see if I can find anything else. -- Bpmullins | Talk 17:46, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete - He has an entry in the National Cyclopedia of American Biography. He was certainly a notable businessman in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was a co-founder of the Pacific Lighting Corp. and later its President and Chairman (in 1940, when it was "believed to be the nation's largest distributing system for natural gas in any single contiguous territory").

The Stanford chair probably is so named because he was a trustee and Chairman of the university's investment committee from 1923-50 (NB - he wasn't a professor himself). I think he's of purely local importance - not enough here for a Wikipedia article. (His son was Robert Watt Miller - also a significant local businessman and a longtime major supporter and board chairman with the San Francisco Opera.) -- Bpmullins | Talk 20:05, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

• Delete. The article does nothing to explain why this person is notable, nor does it provide any third party sources to back up what little is there.
• Delete unless the article is going to be expanded, then what little information there is there can, as mentioned above, be found on the American Bio. So people researching Miller aren't going to miss much info if this article is deleted.SGGH 23:16, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

keep Sure it shows how he's notable. the president of one of the largest public utilities companies (PS&G) is notable. The other things mentioned above add to it. I am puzzled at someone voting "delete" because he's in National cyclopedia. Their standards are pretty variable, but its another positive factor, though hardly decisive. DGG 00:49, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Comment - I don't know what you mean by PS&G. He had nothing to do with Pacific Gas and Electric and in fact his company was in competition with them (if you can compete with the 600-pound gorilla). I don't see any indication that Pacific Lighting is a predecessor of PG&E either.

I'm not !voting delete because he's in the CAB but because the bio there clearly shows to my eyes that he is not notable on a level that merits a Wikipedia article. -- Bpmullins | Talk 17:10, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Comment Miller's company, Pacific Lighting, seems to have become part of Southern California Gas - see[3]. But even the company history doesn't seem to say anything about Miller. Mereda 17:44, 23 January 2007 (UTC) 2nd comment Recent discussion at WP:BIO Things named after people also seems to have confirmed that having a named memorial like a university chair isn't a bypass to notability. Mereda 10:08, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• Delete unless sourced... Addhoc 15:40, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.