George H. Miller

Scholar, historian, teacher

A staunch advocate of historic preservation, George H. Miller was a Ripon College professor of history and the first Ralph Hale Ruppert Distinguished Professor of American History, Principles, and Traditions. He impacted not only the Ripon College Department of History, but also the historic and cultural life of the greater community around Ripon.

He was born George Hall Miller Aug. 5, 1919, and was a native of Evanston, Illinois. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan in the summer of 1941. He served with the Army 41st Division throughout the Pacific Theatre during World War II, and was awarded the Purple Heart. After the war, he earned a master’s degree from Harvard and returned to Ann Arbor to complete his Ph.D. He taught at Michigan for three years.

He served at Ripon College for 27 years, from 1954 until retiring in 1981. He also established the George H. Miller Scholarship and was a charter member of Partners in the Legacy.

In the Ripon community, he served on the Green Lake Festival of Music board of directors and the Ripon Area Chamber of Commerce’s Little White Schoolhouse committee; spearheaded the nomination process to have Ripon College and the southwest residential district designated a state historical district and placed on the National Register of Historical Places; was a member of the Historic Preservation Commission for the City of Ripon; and served as president on the board of directors for the State Historical Society, Ripon Historical Society and the board of Wisconsin History Foundation.

After retirement, he devoted countless hours at the Ripon Historical Society, researching, writing and organizing historical projects for Ripon, including the 150th anniversary of the founding of Ceresco, the first settlement which later merged with Ripon. He also served on Ripon’s Historic Preservation Commission and was named its Person of the Year for historic preservation for 2010.

He was a past president and board member of the Ripon and Wisconsin historical societies,

Ripon history has been well-documented with his written works. He and coauthor Samuel Pedrick, class of 1891, wrote “The History of Ripon,” (1964); and he and coauthor Robert Ashley, professor emeritus of English, wrote “Ripon College: A History” (1990).

Miller’s own “Railroads and the Granger Laws” (1971) won widespread critical acclaim. The American Historical Review declared it “… an excellent example of the solid, specialized, painstaking, straightforward, perceptive monograph upon which general works in American History should be based.”

Ripon College recognitions include the May Bumby Severy, Class of 1908, Award in 1961 and the Uhrig Award in 1963, both for excellence in teaching. He received an honorary degree in 1985 and the Founders’ Day Award in 1996. He also earned the 1995 Ripon Area Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award and the Ripon Commonwealth Press Person of the Year honor in 1999.

Dan Siculan, Class of 1964, recalled: “Dr. Miller’s two-semester course on the American Civil War was almost breathtaking. Who could have imagined that a history course would be so interesting, and so meaningful in terms of understanding America today?”

Miller died Aug. 15, 2011.