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A University of Maine professor emeritus of journalism who served as a faculty advisor to The Maine Campus died on Dec. 30.
Alan Robert Miller, 76, passed away at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va. after a 13-year battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Miller taught at UMaine from 1967 to 1991 and served as the interim director of the press office in the late 80s.
While at the university, he wrote “The History of Current Maine Newspapers,” which chronicled the history of the daily and weekly newspapers in the state .
In the preface of the book, Miller wrote, “My faith and respect in American journalism continues unabated and has been reaffirmed in my tracings of the past. I am enough of a romanticist to believe that printer’s ink does get in your blood. I am fool enough to admit that I was smitten years ago by the world of newspapers. I expect it will last a lifetime.”
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston University in 1952 and a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts- Amherst. At UMass, he served as assistant to the secretary before joining the faculty at UMaine.
Miller served as publisher and editor of the Amherst Journal from 1952 to 1955, before joining the staff of the European Edition of Stars and Stripes in Darmstadt, Germany.
He also served as an overseas correspondent for the Springfield (Mass.) Union.
He also worked in the press office of the U.S. Agency for International Development while on sabbatical from UMaine in 1984 and the USA Today copy desk during the summer of 1990.
After retiring from the university, Miller earned a master’s degree in library science from Catholic University.
The professor was born in Liverpool, England before immigrating to the United States through Ellis Island with his mother and three sisters in 1931.
He served as a member of the Allied occupation forces in Japan when he was 18.
Miller is survived by Anne Lucey, his wife of 24 years, two sons, a daughter, four grandsons, a great-grandson and three sisters.
Bangor Daily News