Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low around 60F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low around 60F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

Roman Miller has been woodworking since 2019. He uses the wood shop located in the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community to make his toys, puzzles and more.

Roman Miller uses a scroll saw to carve a pattern into a piece of wood at VMRC.

Roman Miller picks out a blade for the scroll saw at VMRC.

Roman Miller has been woodworking since 2019. He uses the wood shop located in the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community to make his toys, puzzles and more.

Roman Miller uses a scroll saw to carve a pattern into a piece of wood at VMRC.

Roman Miller picks out a blade for the scroll saw at VMRC.

Roman Miller, a native of Iowa, said he expected to spend two years in Harrisonburg.

When he was offered an endowed professorship position in the biology department at Eastern Mennonite University, Miller said he planned to try the job but move on within a few years.

“I [had] no desire to go to some little rinky-dink school,” Miller said.

Like the winding cut of a scroll saw into a piece of maple wood, Miller said those two years he planned to spend at the university turned into 31 — marrying for the first time in his early 40s and he and his wife bought a piece of property in the area. Then, they adopted two girls from an orphanage in Ukraine — sisters Zoya Miller and Katarina Miller — when they were 4 and 6.

Now a grandfather, Miller, professor emeritus of biology at EMU, draws on his background in the disciplines of physiology and biomedicine for a new hobby he discovered after moving to Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community in 2018.

Setting up at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market on Tuesdays, Miller brings unique wooden puzzles and toys — from beautifully detailed trucks to farm sets – naturally colored by the hues in the different types of wood. Of interest to both oddity-seekers and students, Miller’s anatomy puzzles are a unique offering that blends his love of woodworking and understanding the functions of organs in the human body.

“Anatomy more studies the detail of a part. Physiology looks at interactions. To do physiology, you have to know anatomy,” Miller said.

He creates the puzzles in the comfortable, air-conditioned wood shop in the basement of one of the buildings at VMRC. Close to where he lives, he said he was drawn to the wood shop as a retirement activity.

“Nobody makes anatomy puzzles. [I said] I’m going to do anatomy puzzles,” Miller said.

Having lived on farms, he was familiar with crude woodworking, but at VMRC, Miller said he became interested in the scroll saw, which uses a fine blade to cut intricate patterns and details in wood like the curved edge of a puzzle piece.

“I really hadn’t done woodworking before,” Miller said. “The first things I made were not very good.”

Miller said he’s created 20 different kinds of anatomy puzzles in the handful of years since he started carving wood. He uses pine, cherry, maple and other types to create other simple puzzles, alphabet and number toys, trucks and wooden farm toys and a few games.

Miller, who served as a mentor to numerous students at EMU and was considered an enlightening professor, according to media from the school, said he thought the anatomy puzzles would be a good way to introduce young kids to biology, so they’d be familiar with anatomy in school.

With a few rough edges, Miller said adopting his daughters years ago was tough. He said when they arrived, they only spoke Ukrainian. Eventually, both his daughters learned English, Miller said. They each live in the area, and Miller is now a grandfather of four, who each have “their share” of carved wooden toys.

Named after the farm where he and his family raise sheep and blackberries, Miller’s business, “Knoll Acres Woodworking,” has an online store and is also present at area craft shows, such as the autumn festival in Broadway, the holiday market at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds and VMRC’s craft shows.

“I like the variety. I don’t make tons and tons of copies of the same thing,” Miller said. “Once I make something, and I make it pretty nice, I want to try something different.”

Contact Jillian Lynch at 540-574-6274 or jlynch@dnronline.com. Follow Jillian on Twitter @lynchjillian_

Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

Your comment has been submitted.

There was a problem reporting this.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.

Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.

Error! There was an error processing your request.

Sign up to stay up to date with our daily headlines.