MILLER, N(ewton) Edd 1920-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born March 13, 1920, in Houston, TX; died November 13, 2004, in Reno, NV. College president, educator, and author. Miller was best remembered for his calm leadership as president of the University of Nevada, Reno, during the dramatic student protests of the Vietnam War era. A graduate of the University of Texas, where he earned an M.A. in 1940, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1951. From 1941 until 1947, he taught speech at the University of Texas at Austin. He then joined the University of Michigan faculty as an assistant professor in 1950 where he became a full professor of speech in 1959 and was assistant to the vice president of academic affairs in the mid-1960s. Miller was hired by the University of Nevada in 1965 to be its chancellor, and was named president three years later. Unlike many other university professors around the country during the student protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Miller was loved and admired by students for his willingness to listen to their concerns and for his calm leadership. His model leadership during a 1969 student protest made national news. Miller left the university in 1973 to accept the position as president of the University of Main at Portland-Gorham, moving on to Northern Kentucky University in 1978, where he was chair of the communications department until 1987. He was also interim general manager of university station WNKU from 1985 until 1986. After retiring, he moved back to Reno. Miller was the author of several books on speech, including First Course in Speech (1945), Discussion and Debate (1953), and the coauthored Public Speaking: A Practical Handbook (1985; second edition, 1989).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chronicle of Higher Education, December 3, 2004,
p. A42.

Reno Gazette-Journal, November 21, 2004.

ONLINE

University of Nevada, Reno, News Online,http://www.unr.edu/nevadanews/ (November 15, 2004).