MUM50 - Profile of John D. Millett
This is the fourth in a series of historical vignettes tracing the work of the community and Miami University that led to the opening of Miami University Middletown in September 1966.
This is the fourth in a series of historical vignettes tracing the work of the community and Miami University that led to the opening of Miami University Middletown in September 1966.
John D. Millett was Miami's 16th president from 1953 to 1964, a time of unprecedented growth for Miami as enrollments doubled, residence halls and academic facilities were added, and Miami reached out into the area to provide instruction in local communities.
Millett came to Miami in 1953 after a career that included wartime service in the Pentagon, teaching on the graduate faculty at Columbia University, and serving on the staff of the first Hoover Commission.
It was Millett who called on Earl V. Thesken to return to Miami to serve as Dean of Educational Services and coordinator of Miami's outreach activities, including the five academic centers (Dayton, Hamilton, Middletown, Norwood and Piqua).
In 1961, as Middletonians began to explore the idea of a junior college, Herman Lawrence (Miami academic center head and principal of the high school) and Thesken joined in the conversations, together with Armco Steel president Logan T. Johnston, then a member of Miami's Board of Trustees.
They proposed that greater opportunities for Middletown would result from the establishment of a permanent Miami campus. Those discussions led to a meeting with President Millett, who set what was to become the standard for communities seeking to build campuses - the communities would have to raise a substantial portion of the support.
As we will read later, Middletown (and later Hamilton) more than rose to that challenge.
It was also during the Millett presidency that Miami's Dayton academic center for undergraduate courses and programs was combined with a similar venture from Ohio State at the graduate level. The result - again with the support of the local community - was the genesis of Wright State University.
The model for establishing a regional campus that Millett shaped became the standard for Ohio in the years that followed. Millett was chosen by Ohio Governor James Rhodes to become the first Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents when that statewide coordinating body was formed in 1964. While Millett was chancellor the number of state universities in Ohio doubled from six to twelve, and the network of two-year colleges blossomed from two to 50.
Left: John Millett (2nd from left) and Earl Thesken (3rd from left) at the dedication of the Miami University/Ohio State Academic Center in Dayton, September 1964.
Middle: John Millett portrait in Miami's Sesquicentennial publication in 1959.
Right: John Millett with artist Edwin Fulwider - note the campus planning map to the left of Millett highlighting much of the Oxford campus expansion - June 1964.
Photo Credits: Images provide by the Miami University Archives.
To read other stories in this series, visit http://bit.ly/1cQM9Gt.