It was this insatiable appetite for deals and details and success that drove Miller to work the long hours and miss a home life, a fact that haunts him. "I didn't have to give up what I did," he says. "I could have delegated, and today I do."

Ironically, and painfully, Miller used his great administrative gifts to organize and lead thousands of people in the business world, but he couldn't or didn't do the same for five kids and a wife at home.

'Well, we splurged'

Sitting in her house atop Capitol Hill, Gail Miller, surrounded by the opulence of her new home, is dressed in a gray sweatshirt, blue stretch pants with a small hole in the knee and white socks. She is a handsome, soft-spoken woman with white hair and a serene, wise bearing. "She has the patience of Job," says Greg.

This house is another world for a woman who grew up with nothing. There were times when her family of 11 didn't know when they would get their next meal. "When dad came home with a sack of groceries, the kids would say, 'Yea!' I know how to do with nothing."

Gail's mother tells her, "I never thought this would happen to one of my children." For her part, Gail has become accustomed to it. It's not as if she won the lottery.

"It's all been gradual," she says. "I don't feel puffed up in it. It's just the place I live. I have to stop sometimes and appreciate it."

The Millers raised their family in Sandy, but they always hoped to return to Capitol Hill, the place where they grew up. A few years ago, they decided to build their dream house here. Before a reporter visited his home, Miller prepared him for what he would see.

"When we were dating in high school, we would drive around and see homes we wanted," he said. "Our dream houses. We'd see houses and we'd say, 'That's an obscene display of wealth.' Well, we splurged. I told Gail when we built this house, you know people will say, 'That's an obscene display of wealth.' When you come down the street (below it), you can't miss it; it is pretty lavish."

Let's put it this way: When the architect showed up the first day, he plunked down a book in front of Gail and said, "See if there's anything in there you like." The title of the book: "The Palaces of Marseille."

It's granite and glass on the outside with a pool and a playground and a home movie theater and a view of the entire valley as far south as the smog will allow. Bronze statues greet visitors as they approach the front door. Inside, there are marble and wood floors and 24-foot ceilings and large paintings on the walls and another large sculpture in the entryway. The house took three years to build.