FRESH out of the field artillery in 1946, Paul L. Miller took a trainee's job at Wall Street's First Boston Corp. "to give me eating money while I looked around to see what I wanted to do." It turned out to be a tour of extended duty. Last week Miller, at 44, was named president of the nation's largest underwriting house, which last year placed $2 billion worth of securities. He will be in charge of underwriting, serve as the youngest of the firm's three chief executives (others: Chairman Emil Pattberg Jr., 54, and Executive Committee Chairman Charles Glavin, 53). Tall and greying, Miller is a Philadelphian who went to Princeton. Was he a good student? "Negative," he grins. On the job he gets his greatest satisfaction from advising customers on how and when to raise expansion capital. As he has taken on more responsibility, he has had to give up his favorite diversions one by one. Miller no longer does much birdwatching. He still holds a private pilot's license, but disposed of his single-engined Comanche 250 a few years ago, and "we sold off the last two little old polo ponies last year."

MANHATTAN'S Kendrick R. Wilson Jr., 51, last week was something like a Tiffany manager moving into a ten-cent store. A financier who was trained at U.S. Trust Co. and Lehman Bros, before he rose to the chairmanship of widely diversified Avco Corp., he agreed to a deal by which Avco would acquire a small-loan company, Canada's Delta Acceptance Corp., for $48 million in stock. The swap is anything but penny ante for Avco, which has been shopping for growth companies in the civilian market to expand its own $514 million volume in missile parts and motors, corn pickers and coin laundries. Delta last year handled $242 million worth of appliance paper and personal loans; it would now be able to use Avco's good connections to raise more capital. "Dick" Wilson runs Avco with easy informality, says, "We try to operate with a minimum of fuss and paper." He and President James Kerr, 46, have adjoining offices, never use memos when casual conversation will do.

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