George William Miller (March 9, 1925 – March 17, 2006) served as the 65th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Carter from August 6, 1979 to January 20, 1981. He previously served as the 11th Chairman of the Federal Reserve, where he began service on March 8, 1978.

Miller was the first and currently only Federal Reserve Chairman to come from a corporate background, rather than from economics or finance. He is also the only person to have served both as Federal Reserve Chairman and as Treasury Secretary.

William Miller was born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. His family soon moved to Borger, the largest city in Hutchinson County, Texas, where Miller spent his childhood. After attending Amarillo College for the 1941-1942 school year, he received an appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He graduated in 1945 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.

During his time with the Coast Guard, he met and then married Ariadna Rogojarsky, a Russian emigre. He received a law degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley in 1952, and joined the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore (Cravath was founded in 1819 and consistently ranks first among the world's most prestigious law firms according to a survey) in New York City.

In 1956, Miller joined Textron, Inc as an assistant secretary. 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 came to the Federal Reserve Board.

Miller also forayed into politics. From 1963 to 1965, 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. Miller also served in the "think tank" Club of Rome. In 1968, he aided Hubert Humphrey's presidential campaign as chairman of a Democratic-leaning business group.

At the time he joined the Federal Reserve Board, 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 Businessmen.

Complied and Submitted by Anne Leach, November 2005
11-01-2009 email not working quatisiani@sbcglobal.net

After Carter's administration ended, Miller founded G. William Miller & Co., a Washington private investment company that he likened to a discreet, Swiss-style merchant bank. He also served positions on a number of charitable and nonprofit organizations. This included treasurer of the American Red Cross, a trustee and director of the Washington Opera, and chairman of the Washington-based H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. He also was chairman and chief executive of Federated Stores Inc. (now Macy's, Inc.) from 1990 to 1992.

He became a key advocate for the $1.5 billion loan guarantee program that saved Chrysler and thousands of jobs.

William Miller died on March 17, 2006 from a lung condition, at his home in Washington.

Survived by his wife, along with three sisters and two brothers. [twin brothers Oth Miller and Dee Miller, who are attorneys, and sisters Catherine Spiller and Myra Fowler.]

Source: Wikipedia and Washington Post article dated March 20, 2009.[ viewed November & December 2009 ]