Obituaries

Recent Obituaries
In Memoriam Archive

Frank Barton Miller ’43

A picture of Frank Miller

Frank Barton Miller ’43, March 2, 2006, from pneumonia, in Ithaca, New York. Frank earned a BA from Reed in psychology and entered the U.S. Army Medical Corps, serving as a medic and chaplain’s assistant in the South Pacific. He returned to the states in 1946, and married Charlene A. Welsh ’42. That same year, he took a position as a vocational psychologist for Reed and for Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, through the Veterans Administration guidance programs. Frank received an MS in 1948 and a PhD in 1953 in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1954, and was professor of industrial and labor relations. From 1962 to 1967, he served as director of the office of resident instruction, covering a variety of student service functions. In 1967, he was appointed chair of the department of organizational behavior, and taught courses in the sociology of complex organizations, occupations, industrial society, and personnel administration. He designed the first course on women in the workplace. Frank retired in 1985, remained in Ithaca, and continued to teach on a part-time basis at Cornell and Bernard Baruch College in New York City for 10 years. While on sabbatical from Cornell, he also taught in Istanbul, Turkey; London, England; Monterrey, Mexico; and Vancouver, Canada. His colleagues and his students expressed admiration for the wisdom, compassion, respect, and humor that directed his interactions. He was a fellow of the Society of Applied Anthropology and of the American Sociological Association, and a member of the Industrial Relations Research Association and the American Association of University Professors. The Reed experience, Frank said, got one hooked on the life of the mind, and “raised my aspirational horizons to make additional professional preparation appear feasible.” Survivors include Charlene, with whom he enjoyed music, the arts, Shakespearean festivals, concerts, art tours, and ballet; three sons and a daughter; and seven grandchildren.

Appeared in Reed magazine: August 2006

comments powered by Disqus