Kevin Miller’s grin is wide in every family photo.

“He was always laughing,” said his sister, Karen Phillips. “He was never without his smile.”

Kevin was born in 1965. When he was 4½ months old, a high fever from pneumonia caused brain damage. Phillips said doctors didn’t expect Kevin to live past age 15.

The Miller family moved from John Day to Baker City in the early 1970s, and Kevin’s parents, Rod and Bernie, began advocating — at state and local levels — for children with developmental disabilities. They formed the Association for Retarded Children, which later became the Baker County Association for Retarded Children.

The group’s advocacy led to a classroom within the district for children under 18 with disabilities.

Part of her parents’ drive, Phillips said, was that doctors encouraged them to place Kevin in an institution. Instead, they kept Kevin at home, except for when Bernie suffered a broken pelvis and leg, and he spent four months at a facility.

The conditions at that institution reinforced their goal of providing resources at home for Kevin, and others with disabilities, Phillips said.

When Kevin turned 18, he became a client of Step Forward Activities, a nonprofit founded in 1976 in Baker City that helps residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Step Forward operates group homes that are supervised 24 hours a day, plus a day support program and support for clients who live on their own.

“He was in that system from the very beginning,” Phillips said.

Kevin died in 2012 at age 46. His funeral, she said, drew many people, including all Step Forward residents.

“He touched a lot of lives,” she said.

And now his name will grace one of the Step Forward homes.

On Wednesday, June 25, Step Forward will have an open house for a newly renovated home, named Miller House, at 3275 Riverpark Drive.

The house was previously a group home, and Kevin lived there for some time. It was later sold, but recently returned to Step Forward and remodeled with rooms for five clients.

The open house is from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The public is invited.

Kevin’s family will be there.

“For our family, to have this happen, is incredible,” Phillips said. “It is so meaningful.”