Paul Miller

Hall of Fame Class of 1996

As a professor of sociology and anthropology at Michigan State University (MSU), Paul Miller became the first MSU extension specialist in rural sociology and, successively, director of Michigan's Cooperative Extension Service, vice-president for off-campus education, and the first provost. He chaired a Joint U.S.-Colombian Commission to integrate rural education and research that resulted in the creation of the Colombian Institute of Agriculture. In 1961, he was appointed president of his alma mater, West Virginia University, and served as founding chairman of the Commission of Public Affairs of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. In 1966, he was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to serve as Assistant Secretary for Education of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

After departing government, he served as Director of Planning Studies and Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and as professor of adult education at the University of North Carolina-Raleigh. He then became president of the Rochester Institute of Technology, served as chairperson of the Adult Education Committee of the American Council of Education, and helped the W. K. Kellogg Foundation plan and initiate the Kellogg National Fellowship Program.