Frank Miller, first
Petroleum Engineering chair, remembered
BY MARK SHWARTZ
Frank George Miller, the
first chairperson of the Department of Petroleum
Engineering at Stanford, died of liver cancer in
Larkspur, Calif., on Dec. 17. He was 88.
Miller joined the Stanford
faculty in 1953 after 14 years as an engineer with the
U.S. Bureau of Mines. He was appointed chair of the newly
established Department of Petroleum Engineering in 1957,
a position he held for 19 years. He retired as emeritus
professor in 1976, but continued to visit the campus and
consult with students until his death.
Miller authored more than
20 technical papers on topics such as oil recovery,
groundwater reservoir studies and geothermal energy. His
work as an international energy consultant resulted in
extended assignments in Alaska, Chile, Germany, New
Zealand and other locations.
After retiring from
Stanford, he served as co-principal investigator on
California's largest geothermal geyser project, located
approximately 100 miles north of campus.
In 1982, Miller told the
Stanford News Service, "It's not love alone that
makes the world go around -- it's also energy. And
Stanford is doing its bit to make sure that the U.S.
doesn't run short."
During his tenure as
department chair, Miller added courses in fluid dynamics,
mathematics and modern petroleum reservoir engineering.
He also strengthened the department's ties with major oil
companies, giving students the opportunity to visit oil
fields and actual drilling sites.
"Frank Miller made
Stanford preeminent in petroleum engineering," said
Roland Horne, current department chair. "He made it
the department that it is through judicious faculty
appointments."
Among those Miller brought
to Stanford was consulting Professor A. J. Horn, who died
Dec. 19.
Born March 20, 1911, in
Sacramento, Miller attained the rank of major in the U.S.
Army during World War II. He remained in the officer
reserve until 1955, when he retired as a lieutenant
colonel.
He earned his bachelor's,
master's and doctoral degrees in engineering from the
University of California-Berkeley, where he also lectured
from 1947 until his appointment at Stanford in 1953.
"I always win at Big
Game," Miller often joked, "because I have one
foot in Stanford and the other at Cal."
Miller held several
offices in the Society of Petroleum Engineers and was a
member of Pi Epsilon Tau, the petroleum engineering honor
society. In 1978 he spent a term at Heriot-Watt
University in Edinburgh, Scotland, as a Fulbright scholar
and honorary visiting professor.
Miller's wife, Prudence
"Mona" Miller, died in 1995. He is survived by
daughter Patricia Miller Baldridge and her husband,
Victor Baldridge, of Larkspur and by nephews Jan and Ray
Nelson.
Memorial services have
been held. The family prefers donations to the Los Altos
Methodist Church Music Program, 655 Magdalena Ave., Los
Altos, CA 94022 or to the Frank G. Miller Fellowship in
Petroleum Engineering, c/o Department of Petroleum
Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
94305-2220. SR
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