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Miller to retire after 36 years at OSU |
Dr. Steve Miller is retiring after 36 years of service as a scholar,
teacher and international leader in the Spears School of Business at
Oklahoma State University.
Miller grew up in Oklahoma City and enrolled as a student at OSU in 1958. He received his B.S. in 1962 in general business and M.B.A. from Oklahoma State University in 1963. Steve was active in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity while a student at OSU. He then went to UCLA and received his Ph.D. in marketing in 1967. He taught at Penn State University from 1966 to 1971 and at UCLA as a visiting assistant professor for the summer of 1969.
After being out of the state for several years, Miller had mixed feelings about returning to Oklahoma, but he had family in Oklahoma and Texas so he accepted an offer to serve as associate professor at OSU in 1971.
Miller was a faculty member in the Administrative Sciences department when he first came to OSU and about seven years later, the consolidated department was split into three departments. After a leave of absence to teach at Penn State, Steve came back to OSU as the first head of the new OSU Department of Marketing in 1981. He served 11 years as department head. “I was quite pleased to see the five member faculty grow into a 15 member faculty with a strong nationally recognized group of scholars. What makes a quality department is quality faculty who work together to advance education.” said Miller.
Miller was asked to comment on OSU and what makes it special in higher education. “If we go back to the history of the university, there’s been a very nice balance between striving for academic excellence and maintaining an attractive scholarly and social environment. We have had a good cooperative social environment at OSU and there has always been, within the Spears School of Business, people very willing to provide service to others, including students and faculty in order to maintain the learning climate.”
Miller became director of International Business Programs in 1991. He first traveled out of the U.S. in 1983 on a visit to the Philippines. He subsequently traveled to Japan and Korea on university programs and to many countries in Europe, Asia and South America. “The nature of international involvements on the part of the School of Business is overwhelming now in contrast to 15 years ago,” said Miller. “That’s attributed not directly to me but to the school’s recognition of the importance of international education in our global economy.” Miller stated that, prior to 1991, there were no study abroad programs, virtually no foreign academic travel supported by the university for participation in conferences, and very few visiting scholars from other countries—all of which has been drastically reversed in recent years.
“We will have five visiting faculty members from other countries next year in the School of Business here as research scholars; and we have many study abroad programs (London, France, Mexico) as well as other relationships including offering an Executive MBA with Zayed University in Dubai; and a cooperative masters program with Thailand,” said Miller.
The Spears School’s first study abroad program was in 1991 to London. Since that time, the school has offered study abroad programs to Canada, China, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Japan, and Mexico, these being organized through the school’s Center for Executive and Professional Development. “More than 30 faculty members have taught in the various programs and we’ve made a special effort to develop and recruit students and faculty for the programs and to promote a diversity of faculty participation,” said Miller. “As a result, faculty members who had no international focus, returned from their travel with an attitude and knowledge base to change the way they teach their more traditional courses and to incorporate dimensions to their topical coverage,” he added.
Miller’s other emphasis through his teaching has been using the technology available through distance learning. He was first involved in the business school’s distance learning programs in 1983 through microwave distribution of material to three sites. This involved one-way video and two-way audio. Now, his course materials are delivered to 35 or 40 sites across the country including delivery to corporate sites and in other countries where students receive CDs or download the courses from the Internet. “I have probably taught more students by distance than anyone in the college in terms of years and size of my classes,” said Miller. It is a customer-focused initiative providing quality graduate programs to those whose location and job responsibilities have restricted access to traditional campus settings.
Looking back, Miller said, “I will miss the daily interaction with faculty and students—it has been a part of my life for 36 years. The mental stimulation of the discussion of issues with colleagues and students will be difficult to replace and I will miss it. However, I hope to still be involved with international projects and activities hosting foreign delegations, distance learning programs on behalf of the Spears School of Business, working with the business and governmental communities of Oklahoma.”
Miller was selected to serve on the Governor’s International Team, and has served for 14 years. He has served as president of the group and was selected as Chair of the statewide task force to develop the Oklahoma International Strategic Plan. He was also chosen in 2003 by the Oklahoma Chancellor for Higher Education to serve on the task force EDGE to guide state-wide economic development initiatives.
Miller is the recipient of the Regents Service Professor at OSU (1992-96), the OSU President’s Service Award—Outreach Faculty Excellence Award at OSU (2004), and winner of the Regional V and National Faculty University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004. He has chaired 11 Ph.D. thesis committees, supervised over 40 MBA papers and served on 28 OSU and college committees. Miller is a graduate of Leadership Stillwater and has served on at least 10 community organizations including Frontier and Centennial Rotary, Sister City Committee and Stillwater Chamber of Commerce.
Miller plans to remain in Stillwater and maintain his involvement with the university and business school and will endow a scholarship through the OSU Foundation in support of study abroad activity by OSU students. He plans to remain involved as a volunteer in the international business community in Oklahoma. He’ll also have instruction opportunities available in Italy, France and Thailand.
Miller’s wife has accused him of failing retirement. They do have a long-standing joke—that he can retire whenever he wants, just don’t expect her to cook lunch. Miller will be missed and it’s a good bet his colleagues and students would buy his lunch to gain some of the wisdom of 36 years as a professor and administrator at OSU.
A scholarship to honor Miller has been established at the OSU Foundation. Gifts may be made to the OSU Foundation to the Steve Miller Family Endowed Scholarship fund Development Office, Spears School of Business.
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