News and Events - Alan Miller
Fund Revives Journalism Lecture Series
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Alan
Miller
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University of Maine journalism students will
be able to get the inside scoop from veteran reporters thanks to a
new fund established by alumna Anne Lucey in memory of her late
husband, Alan Miller, who taught journalism at UMaine for more
than two decades.
The Alan Miller Fund for Excellence in
Communication and Journalism will revive a lecture series from the
1970's and 1980's in which outstanding journalists came to UMaine
to give talks, attend classes and offer valuable career advice and
insight. Students were able to hone their craft with journalistic
icons such as Rushworth Kidder, then editorial page editor for the
Christian Science Monitor, and David Lamb, then foreign
correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.
A member of the faculty from 1967 to 1991,
Miller was chair of the journalism department and advisor for the
student newspaper. He was an enthusiastic supporter and
coordinator of the lecture series which enabled experienced
journalists to motivate and excite aspiring reporters.
Lucey, who earned a degree in journalism from
UMaine in 1982, recalls how students looked forward to hearing the
reporters reminisce about their journalistic exploits.
"Interacting with working journalists who go
into the classroom, help with writing skills and tell war stories
can be a powerful thing," she says. "It was for me."
Senior vice president for regulatory policy at
CBS Corporation in Washington, D.C., Lucey says her goal now is to
celebrate her husband's love of journalism and teaching.
"UMaine brought together everything he loved."
Lucey's generous gift will "develop a new
tradition for a new generation of journalism students, maintain
and strengthen the Communication and Journalism Department's
connection to the Maine Press Association, and keep alive
Professor Miller's work of connecting students with successful
professionals," says John Sherblom, chair of the department.
Noting Miller's "enormous impact on the lives
and careers of his students," UMaine President Robert Kennedy says
he is "delighted and tremendously thankful that Anne Lucey has
chosen to honor her late husband with a gift that will benefit our
journalism students for many generations to come."
Journalism Professor Kathryn Olmstead, who
helped coordinate the visiting writer program, says she is pleased
that it's making a comeback because it had been a valuable
addition to the curriculum.
"These successful journalists were extremely
inspiring. They would talk about their achievements and serve as
professional role models for students who would ask questions
about their work and their experiences."
Author of "The History of Current Maine
Newspapers," Miller was familiar with almost every daily and
weekly newspaper in the state and so was able to help students
obtain summer internships and jobs after they graduated, Olmstead
says.
He was committed to staying in touch with
real-world journalism himself, she adds. Long after he was a full
professor he continued to work in newsrooms during the summer and
on sabbaticals.
"He believed he should keep up with a
profession transformed by technology in order to be an effective
teacher."
Stories about Miller still circulate,
according to Ann Leffler, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences. "What I hear was how he mentored students and encouraged
them to become journalists and to believe they had stories to
tell. He reminded them journalism was a calling and encouraged
them to heed that calling and its high standards."
Miller was indeed a guiding force, former
students agree.
"He's the reason I'm now into journalism,"
says Steve Betts, who grew up in Stonington, earned a journalism
degree from UMaine in 1981, and is now editor of the Courier
Gazette in Rockland.
"He was passionate about his profession and
transferred that passion to me."
Steve Olver, a Hampden native who also
graduated in 1981 with a degree in journalism, says Miller was a
gifted teacher who enjoyed working one on one with his students.
"He was such a pro -- he'd go over everything
and really explain the craft of writing," says Olver, design
editor at the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Her late husband was the quintessential
newsman, says Lucey. Publisher and editor of the Amherst
(Massachusetts) Journal which he purchased after graduating from
Boston University in 1952, he subsequently worked for a number of
other newspapers including the European edition of Stars and
Stripes. An overseas correspondent for the Springfield
(Massachusetts) Union Leader, he covered the fall of the Berlin
Wall.
As advisor for the UMaine student newspaper,
he loved editing students' writing and "probably knew more about
what was happening on campus than anybody," Lucey says.
"He read all these stories from all these kids
who were out reporting, whether their articles made the newspaper
or not."
A lover of words, her husband often perused
the dictionary for entertainment and was rarely without a notebook
and a pen to record observations about the world around him.
"The written word was his life," she says. "He
was always leaving me notes. I'd wake up and there would be a note
on the counter. It was his way of starting and ending the day."
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