Paul A. Miller papers

Paul Ausborn Miller (1917- ) was born March 22, 1917 in East Liverpool, Ohio to Harry Ausborn and Mamie Elizabeth (née Stewart) Miller. After graduating high school, he attended West Virginia University (WVU), where he earned his B.S. in Agriculture in 1939. Miller then accepted a position as a County Agricultural Agent with the WVU Agricultural Extension Service. During World War II, he served as a 1st lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps. He married Catherine Spiker on December 9, 1939 with whom he had two children.

Following the war, Miller attended Michigan State University (MSU) where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology and Anthropology in 1953. He had started teaching at MSU as early as 1947, serving as professor from 1947-1962. From 1959-1962, he also served as the provost for MSU. He left Michigan in 1962, when he was appointed the president of his alma mater, WVU.

After serving as WVU's president for four years, Miller was selected by President Lyndon B. Johnson to be the Assistant Secretary of Education for the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). During his time with HEW, Miller was asked to oversee the development of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

In 1968, Miller began working as a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, while simultaneously teaching at the North Carolina State University as a Professor of Adult Education. He left North Carolina in 1969, when he was selected as the president of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

Miller's presidency was during an important period of growth for the university. RIT had recently relocated to a new campus in the suburbs of Henrietta and plans were in the works to add new programs to the college's curriculum. In 1973, a ninth college was added, Institute College, as a place for emerging programs to properly develop. Meanwhile, the rest of the school was growing academically as well. During Miller's tenure, new degrees were added in external technology, bio-communications, and glassblowing. To face these challenges, Miller created a position for a university provost to oversee the development of RIT's academic curriculum within the confines of Miller's new balanced budget procedures. He left the presidency in 1978, though continued to serve at RIT as a professor emeritus.

Miller received several honors throughout his lifetime. In 1996, he was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame. The following year, he received the Award of Distinguished Rural Sociologist of the Rural Sociological Society of America along with his second wife, Francena (née Lounsbery) Miller. He was also named a Fellow of the American Sociological Association.