3 sources · updated 28 Oct 2026
Robert Warren Miller was born on 23 May 1933 in Quincy, Massachusetts. A 1955 graduate of Cornell's hotel school, he co-founded the duty-free pioneer DFS with Chuck Feeney in 1960, and set up Search Investment Group in 1973.
An avid sailor, he had the schooner Mari-Cha IV built with record-breaking in mind. In October 2003, aboard her, she became the first monohull to cross the Atlantic west-to-east in under seven days and set a 24-hour distance record of 525.5 nautical miles. His son-in-law Prince Pavlos of Greece was among the crew.
In April 2005 Mari-Cha IV won the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge and broke Charlie Barr's century-old record.