Paul A. Miller

Born in East Liverpool, Ohio, Miller spent most of his childhood on a small family farm in West Virginia. His father operated the farm part-time and supplemented the family's income with factory work. As a boy, he participated in 4-H.{{cite news | date = 2015-06-08 | title = Former university president Paul Miller dies at 98 | url = http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/8/former-university-president-paul-miller-dies-at-98/ | newspaper = The Washington Times | location = Washington, D.C. | issn = 0732-8494 | access-date = 2015-12-30 }} Miller attended Bethany College before earning a bachelor's degree in agriculture from West Virginia University in 1939.

Miller's first job was as an agent at the agricultural extensions for Ritchie and Nicholas Counties.{{cite news | date = 2015-06-08 | title = Miller, WVU president in the '60s, dies at 98 | url = http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150608/GZ01/150609302 | newspaper = The Charleston Gazette | location = Charleston, West Virginia | access-date = 2015-12-30 }} In 1942, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps as a navigator.{{cite web | url = http://www.wdtv.com/wdtv.cfm?func=view§ion=5-News&item=WVUs-15th-President-Paul-Miller-Passed-Away-June-5-23635 | date = 2015-06-08 | title = WVU's 15th President, Paul Miller, Passed Away June 5 | publisher = WDTV | location = Weston, West Virginia | access-date = 2015-12-30 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093247/http://www.wdtv.com/wdtv.cfm?func=view§ion=5-News&item=WVUs-15th-President-Paul-Miller-Passed-Away-June-5-23635 | archive-date = 2016-03-04 }}

After World War II ended, he studied for a doctorate in anthropology and sociology at Michigan State College. After graduating in 1953, Miller worked as a professor of Sociology at Michigan State, becoming director of the Cooperative Extension and eventually provost. He moved back to West Virginia to assume the presidency of West Virginia University in 1962, where he promoted the university's agricultural extension. In 1966, Lyndon Johnson appointed him the first assistant secretary for education in the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare where he was responsible for making the arrangements for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf to start operations.{{cite book | last1 = Gordon | first1 = Dane R. | year = 2007 | title = Rochester Institute of Technology: Industrial Development and Educational Innovation in an American City, 1829-2006 | edition = 2 | location = Henrietta, New York | publisher = RIT Press | isbn = 9781933360232 | oclc = 80360669}}{{rp|270}}

He helped establish the Colombian Institute of Agriculture in Bogotá and the Morogoro Institute of Technology in Tanzania.

Anticipating the change in administrations in 1967, Miller accepted a lecturing position at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.{{rp|270}}

In 1969, he became president of the Rochester Institute of Technology which had moved from its old campus in downtown Rochester, New York to a much larger campus on a former farm in the suburb of Henrietta, New York.{{cite news | date = June 26, 1969 | title = N. Carolina Educator New RIT President | work = Democrat and Chronicle | location = Rochester, New York | page = 1B}} Miller inherited a nearly 12% budget deficit, the result of declining enrollment, higher attrition, and higher costs for the new campus which resulted in several years of austerity.{{rp|271}} Miller implemented zero-based budgeting, forecasting of student enrollment, and made the dormitories co-ed.{{cite web | url = http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=52460&source=enewsletter | date = 2015-06-08 | title = RIT remembers President Emeritus Paul Miller | publisher = Rochester Institute of Technology | location = Henrietta, New York | access-date = 2015-12-30 }} Additionally, Miller quelled student demonstrations in the wake of the Kent State shootings{{rp|277–279}} and oversaw precautions taken to defend against the flooding of Hurricane Agnes.{{rp|286}} Miller attempted to overcome persistent vandalism of the dormitories{{rp|284}} by staying in them with the students{{rp|274}} and later instituting a carrot-and-stick repair or improve budget for each dorm.{{rp|314}} Miller improved faculty compensation{{rp|288}} and student representation in the Institute equivalent of the faculty senate.{{rp|289}} Miller hired RIT's first provost, Todd Bullard, in 1970.{{rp|301}}

After stepping down from RIT in 1979, Miller served in a number of volunteer and civic roles including heading the advisory committee of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation,{{cite news | date = November 29, 1978 | title = Kellogg Foundation appoints 2 part-time program consultants | work = Battle Creek Enquirer | location = Battle Creek, Michigan | page = B-7}} worked to form Greater Rochester Fights Back, an anti-drug advocacy group, and served on the board of trustees of both Nazareth College and Monroe Savings Bank. He was briefly a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Buffalo Branch.

After retiring from RIT, he taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri. He funded the Paul A. Miller Professorship in Adult and Continuing Adult Education at RIT after retiring{{cite news | date = 2015-06-08 | title = Former RIT president Miller dies | url = http://www.rbj.net/article.asp?aID=214213 | newspaper = Rochester Business Journal | location = Rochester, New York | access-date = 2015-12-30 }} and the Paul A. and Francena L. Miller Presidential Scholarship at WVU in 2006.{{cite web | url = http://wvmetronews.com/2015/06/08/wvu-announces-death-of-former-president-miller/ | date = 2015-06-08 | title = WVU announces death of former president Miller | website = wvmetronews.com | publisher = West Virginia MetroNews | location = Morgantown, West Virginia | access-date = 2015-12-30 }}

Miller married Catherine Spiker and raised a son and a daughter. He later married social science professor Francena Lounsbery.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

He moved to Montrose, Colorado in 2011.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

• {{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Paul A.|author-link1=Paul A. Miller|last2=Beegle|first2=J. Allan|year=1947|title=The Farm People of Livingston County, Michigan|location=East Lansing, Michigan|publisher=Michigan State College Press|oclc=6122526}}
• {{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Paul A.|author-link1=Paul A. Miller|year=1953|title=Community Health Action|location=East Lansing, Michigan|publisher=Michigan State College Press|oclc=16766011}}
• {{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Paul A.|author-link1=Paul A. Miller|last2=Gass|first2=Gertrude Z.|last3=Senders|first3=Virginia L.|year=1967|title=The University in Motion: The Status of Women|location=Urbana, Illinois|publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign|oclc=32815857}}
• {{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Paul A.|author-link1=Paul A. Miller|year=2014|title=Bridging Campus and Community: Events, Excerpts, and Expectations for Strengthening America's Collaborative Competence|isbn=9781500384746|oclc=902681373}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://library.rit.edu/findingaids/html/RITArc.0080.html RIT Archives' collection on Paul A. Miller]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080124094806/http://www.rit.edu/~930www/NewsEvents/2007/Mar02/t6.html "RIT's presidential history"], by Michael Saffran; Number 11, Volume 39, March 2007 issue of RIT News & Events

{{s-start}}

{{s-aca}}

{{s-bef|before=Elvis Jacob Stahr Jr.}}

{{s-ttl|title=President of West Virginia University|years=1962–1966}}

{{s-aft|after=James Gindling Harlow}}

{{s-bef|before=Mark W. Ellingson}}

{{s-ttl|title=President of the Rochester Institute of Technology|years=October 1, 1969 – January 1, 1979}}

{{s-aft|after=M. Richard Rose}}

{{s-end}}

{{Rochester Institute of Technology presidents}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Paul A.}}

Category:1917 births

Category:2015 deaths

Category:Michigan State University alumni

Category:People from East Liverpool, Ohio

Category:Presidents of Rochester Institute of Technology

Category:West Virginia University alumni

Category:People from Montrose, Colorado