A retired rear admiral who helped pioneer the Navy’s stealth warfare technology was named yesterday to the Naval Academy’s top academic post.
William C. Miller, former director of the Office of Naval Research, was the top choice of Adm. Charles R. Larson, academy superintendent, to succeed Robert H. Shapiro as academic dean. A driven academic whose personality made him unpopular among many of the 440 faculty members who reported to him, Shapiro is retiring after eight years in the job.
The selection of Shapiro’s successor has been watched closely by civilian faculty members, who despite comprising 65 percent of the staff have long felt unrepresented within the academy’s military culture. Miller, the associate provost for research and economic development at West Virginia University, said yesterday he would make mending fences with the faculty a priority.
“One of my major goals is recognizing and respecting the concerns of the civilian faculty,” Miller said. “I want them to be sure that I am going to be the dean of the whole faculty, not just the military. I want them to feel in a year from now that their concerns were unfounded.”
An academy alumnus with master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Miller, 56, was selected as one of five finalists from 180 applicants by a search committee headed by former Chief of Naval Operations James L. Holloway III.
His candidacy was endorsed by Larson, who has been busy filling top academy posts in preparation for his departure next year. But some civilian faculty members, who rated Miller fourth on the list of finalists for the $120,000-a-year position, had hoped for a leader with more classroom experience.
Miller has spent much of his career on ship bridges — at 32, he became the youngest officer to command a ship in the Atlantic fleet — and in laboratories. Since retiring from the Navy in 1993, he has served in West Virginia University’s top administrative ranks and also has taught electrical engineering.
“Dr. Miller brings two outstanding strengths — relevant Navy and academic experience — which will extend the academy’s reputation for excellence that Dean Shapiro has fostered over the last eight years,” said Roger Little, president of the faculty senate. “We hope he’ll bring a strong willingness to listen to faculty views and, perhaps, enhance research opportunities.”
Miller was granted a waiver by the Office of Personnel Management to allow him to return to the federal work force and still collect a federal pension.
The appointment comes as civilian faculty members warily watch Larson carry out a plan to bring 30 full-time military professors to the academy. Designed to increase the proportion of uniformed professors at the officer-training school, the plan was endorsed by a recent review board studying academy life.
But the board also urged the academy’s military leaders to listen harder to civilian faculty.
Miller said he had asked for a copy of the review board report. He said he was heartened by what he knew of the board’s findings, which gave the academy what amounted to a clean bill of health after several years of periodic scandal involving midshipmen.
“One thing that is of some comfort coming into this job is that the curriculum is very stable,” said Miller, who received news of his appointment from Larson last week on a pay phone at a West Virginia Dairy Queen.
In 1962, Miller graduated from the academy in the top 1 percent of his class and returned about 15 years later to serve as executive assistant to Vice Adm. Kinnaird R. McKee, the superintendent from 1975 through 1978. He will assume his new post in October.
As Chief of Naval Research, Miller supervised the Navy’s $1.5 billion annual research and development budget. He also was founding director of the Navy’s stealth technology office.
“His presence demonstrated leadership both academically and personally,” said Capt. Todd T. W. Bruner, a search committee member. “The process was very competitive. I personally really feel Dr. Miller will take the academy to even higher standards.”
Pub Date: 8/05/97
