Overview

No Good Deed is a taut nonfiction account of the personal and professional challenges the author faced as a school psychologist in taking on his own employer to seek help for his daughter. Author Frank L. Miller spins a gripping, heart-wrenching, and almost unbelievable account of his devotion as a psychologist concerned for his students as well as his own daughter. For anyone who has taken on the gross weight and sheer incompetence of an uncaring, unfeeling monster in the form of a school, university, agency, or corporation, No Good Deed will strike a strangely familiar chord. Miller kept detailed journals throughout these unfolding events, and though the author has changed the names of the principal characters and locations, everything in the book is completely true. At the beginning of the book, Miller details his youth growing up in an ordinary suburban Long Island, New York, community and how his experiences going to college during the turbulent 1960s forges his strong sense of advocacy for disabled children. He also explores the conflict in roles between 1960s Flower Child and father. The turmoil of Vietnam is touched upon. Regarding the latter, Miller expresses feeling like a prisoner, held between the four walls of academia, unable to impact upon the war, and its effects upon American society as an active participant facilitating change. The story continues through Miller's degrees, the genesis of his career, and then his marriage to a young woman with two children whose ex-husband died a violent death. Then the story moves into high gear: Miller faces the unique and almost daunting challenges that parenting a child with learning disabilities can present. These challenges took on a new dimension when Miller's step-daughter became involved with drugs at the age of fifteen. This is the rally point where No Good Deed Shifts into high gear, and Miller's long fight to help his daughter overcome her many troubles begins in earnest.

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Frank L. Miller was born in New York City and raised in a suburban community on Long Island. The middle child with two sisters, he was held to high expectations by his parents and his maternal aunt and grandmother whom he spent a great deal of time with. He had an idyllic childhood spent exploring the woods at the end of his neighborhood with summers in the Berkshires on a lake. He pursued an undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech double- majoring in Psychology and English Education with a minor in Sociology. He completed his graduate degree at Radford University with a Specialist Degree in School Psychology. Frank held positions in Virginia, West Virginia (where he met his wife), Maryland and Delaware. Active both within and outside his profession he served as President of the County Council of PTA's, President of the local teachers' association, and President of the Delaware Association of School Psychologists. Frank adopted his wife's two children from a previous marriage, and when their daughter became addicted to drugs adopted their granddaughter. Always a strong child advocate, especially for children with disabilities, Frank fought a long and difficult battle with his employer when they expelled his daughter from school after she turned herself in seeking help. The struggle put a great deal of strain on his marriage as well as his relationships with his children, and eventually his employer. Despite all the difficulties, his marriage and his career survived intact, his daughter kicked her addiction to heroin, and his granddaughter/daughter became the apple of his eye as she blossomed into a wonderful young woman with numerous talents in the arts and with her volunteer activities. Involved with dance and piano and and A/B student she still manages to find time to help others. Frank retired after thirty-eight years as a school psychologist and now spends a great deal of his time writing...and gardening.

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