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G. William Miller, 1946
A Life of Singular Service
G. William Miller ’46, passed away at his home in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2006. Bill died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis from which he had suffered for about 18 months. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Ariadna Miller.
Mr. Miller was born on March 9, 1925 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Borger, Texas. He was graduated in 1945 from the Coast Guard Academy (CGA Class of 1946) with a B.S. in marine engineering and served until 1949 as a Coast Guard Officer in the Far East and on the U.S. West Coast. He received a law degree from the University of California School of Law at Berkeley in 1952, and joined the law firm of Cravath, Swain and Moore in New York.
In 1956, Mr. Miller joined Textron Inc. He became a Vice President of the company in 1957 and President in 1960. In 1968, he became Chief Executive Officer of Textron and was elected Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1974, a post he held until he joined the Federal Reserve Board.
On March 8, 1978, Mr. Miller became Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. At the time he joined the Board, Mr. Miller was a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and of several corporations. He was also a member of the Business Council and the Business Roundtable and Chairman of The Conference Board and of the National Alliance of Business.
Mr. Miller moved from the Fed to become Secretary of the Treasury on August 6, 1979, serving under President Carter. He served in that capacity until January 20, 1981.
Mr. Miller is Chairman of G. William Miller & Co. Inc., a merchant banking firm located at 1100 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 725, Washington, DC. Until his recent illness, Mr. Miller was on the boards of Simon Property Group and Repligen Corporation. He served as Chairman and CEO of Federated Stores, Inc., of Cincinnati, Ohio, from January 1990 until February 1992.
Honorary degrees have been bestowed upon Mr. Miller by Babson College, Boston University, Brown University, Bryant College, Fairfield University, Florida State University and the University of Rhode Island. He is also a Fellow of the University of California at Berkeley. During 1983-84, he was Regent Lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1984 he was the Lloyd Bentsen Professor of Government- Business Relations, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and during 1989 he was the Fannie Wilson Smith Professor at Florida State University.
Throughout his business career, Mr. Miller has been active in public service: Chairman of the National Alliance of Business; Chairman of the President’s Committee on HIRE (jobs for Vietnam veterans); Chairman of the Conference Board (1977-78); Chairman of the U.S. Industrial Payroll Savings Bond Committee (1977); and Co-Chairman of the US-USSR Trade and Economic Council and the Polish-U.S. Economic Council. He was also a member of the Distribution Committee of the Rhode Island Foundation and of the Advisory Board of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors. From 1963 to 1965, Mr. Miller was Chairman of the Industry Advisory Council of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity; in 1966 and 1967, he was a member of the National Council on the Humanities; and from 1983 to 1987 served as Treasurer of the American Red Cross. He was editor of “Regrowing the American Economy,” published by The American Assembly (1983). He was Co-Chairman, President’s Circle, National Academy of Sciences from 1989 to 1992. He served as Chairman of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment 2000-2005. He is on the Board of The Washington National Opera.
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