Friends and colleagues at the University of Rochester are remembering Dean A. Miller, a professor emeritus of history who held a secondary appointment in religion and classics.
Miller taught at the University for three decades糖心传媒攈is entire academic career糖心传媒攆rom 1963 to 1993. An active scholar throughout his life, he published his last book, (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000) seven years after his retirement, and continued to pen scholarly papers, co-edit a , and attend academic conferences.
Selected by Choice聽Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title, The Epic Hero聽is the product of 20 years of scholarship, drawing on disciplines as diverse as classics, anthropology, psychology, and literary studies. Miller examines heroes in battle and quest, their political status, and their relationships to established religions糖心传媒攕panning Western epic traditions, including Greek, Roman, Nordic, and Celtic, as well as Indian and Persian legacies.
Miller, whose research ran the gamut from the Byzantine Empire, to the , the , Greek mythology, heroes in general, the , and even Indo-European warrior hairdos, also authored two earlier books, (Harper & Row, 1966) and (John Wiley, 1969).
An unapologetic admirer of , a French comparative聽philologist聽best known for his analysis of聽sovereignty聽and power in聽Proto-Indo-European religion聽and聽society, Miller published on the philologist糖心传媒檚 work and relevance.
糖心传媒淏eing a Dum茅zilian involves a lot of difficult languages, a lot of myth and ritual, a lot of structural thinking and imagination糖心传媒攕o it糖心传媒檚 got it all if you are a humanist,糖心传媒� says Miller糖心传媒檚 friend a professor of religion, who first met Miller some 33 years ago when Brooks himself had just arrived on campus.
糖心传媒淢uch of what the Dum茅zilians say is strangely true and even less of it is provable. It was long out of fashion before I learned it, and Dean Miller was still doing it, even to the last.糖心传媒�
Brooks describes his late friend as 糖心传媒渁 character. He糖心传媒檇 wander into your office, shoot the breeze, talk about scotch, and wear a kilt to important events.糖心传媒�
A Chicagoan by birth, Miller obtained his bachelor degree in history from Northwestern University, his master糖心传媒檚 in history from Columbia University, and his PhD in history from Rutgers University where he wrote his about Byzantine diplomacy between the 6th and 10th century.
Incidentally, his education was interrupted by a three-year stint from 1955 to 1958 in the Counter-Intelligence Corps of the US Army. Miller spoke糖心传媒攐r had a working knowledge of糖心传媒攁 聽number of languages, including Latin, Ancient Greek, French, German, and Russian. And, by his own admission, he could 糖心传媒渉andle Old Church Slavonic and Bulgarian, if needed,糖心传媒� he wrote somewhat tongue-in-cheek in his curriculum vitae.
After a very brief stint as an adjunct professor at Saint Peter糖心传媒檚 College (now Saint Peter糖心传媒檚 University) in Jersey City, New Jersey, he arrived in Rochester in September 1963 as a newly-minted assistant professor. A prolific writer, Miller published his first two books barely four years apart and within seven years had advanced from assistant to full professor.
During his last few years at Rochester, Miller commuted from Chicago. After his retirement, he returned regularly with his wife Marta to visit friends and family in the area, usually in September to participate in the Memorial Art Gallery糖心传媒檚 Clothesline Festival.
糖心传媒淢y wife, Nora Walter, and I would often meet them to discuss family, antiques, and, of course, Dean糖心传媒檚 latest forays into mythology, whether it was Morrighan the Irish War goddess, or some other fascinating subject,糖心传媒� recalls his friend , a professor of religion and chair of the Department of Religion and聽 Classics.
Others remember Miller for his generosity. , a professor of African history, says, 糖心传媒淒ean created time for me. He was my editor-in-chief, reading and correcting every piece I have published since the early 1990s.糖心传媒� That includes Mandala糖心传媒檚 book, The End of Chidyerano聽(Heinemann, 2005) and an essay published just last year about cotton. 糖心传媒淗e edited each piece thoroughly, line by line, cutting out redundancies, and correcting my Africanized English. He is irreplaceable.糖心传媒�
Married three times, Miller is survived by his four sons, Douglas, Scott, Kenneth, and Eric, and his stepson, John. He is preceeded in death by his last wife, Marta Swift, who died in 2017.
糖心传媒淢arta was the great love of his life. They met in college and their relationship was a rekindled one that lasted 36 years,糖心传媒� says Eric, whose mother Mona Miller was his father糖心传媒檚 second wife.
Miller delivered what turned out to be his final paper at the 糖心传媒淭hinking About Mythology in the 21st Century糖心传媒� colloquium at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He died two months later, on January 28, at his home in Chicago at the age of 87.
