Harvey Alfred Miller was born in Sturgis, Michigan on October 19, 1928 and graduated Sturgis High School in 1946. He attended the University of Michigan (B. S. Botany, 1950), University of Hawaii (M. S. Botany, 1952) and Stanford University (Ph. D. Biology, 1957). He was, in order, instructor at the University of Massachusetts, Instructor through Associate Professor at Miami University (Ohio), visiting Professor at the University of Guam, Professor and chair at Washington State University, visiting Professor at the University of Illinois, Professor and chair at Florida Technological University (now the University of Central Florida), Adjunct Professor at the University of West Alabama, Adjunct Professor at Seminole State College, and currently Adjunct Professor of Biology at Miami University (Ohio).
His botanical travels have taken him to all fifty states including Alaska, the Aleutians and Hawaii, plus Canada, England, Wales, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Soviet Union, Micronesia, Philippines, Japan, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Costa Rica and Guadelupe Island Mexico.
He is principal author of three books about Pacific island bryophytes (Bryoflora of the Atolls of Micronesia, Prodromus Florae Muscorum Polynesiae, Prodromus Florae Hepaticarum Polynesiae), author of a Laboratory Manual for General Botany, is completing the personally illustrated Liverworts and Hornworts of Hawaii for the University of Hawaii Press, and has published over one hundred research articles as well as numerous informal personal short memoirs. He served for five years as editor of the Florida Scientist published by the Florida Academy of Sciences.
He is listed in Who’s Who in America since 1970, International Dictionary of Biography, Who’s Who in American Education, and World Scientists from Antiquity to the Present. He served as President of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society and as the first Executive Secretary and later as President of the Florida Academy of Sciences. He served two terms as Chairman of the Committee on Botany of the Pacific Science Association. He collected the first carbon samples that helped establish the carbon-14 dates for human migration across the Bering Straits to North America during the 1949-50 University of Michigan Expedition to the Aleutian Islands. He was director of Miami University Seminar at Sea. He was Leader of the Miami University–Collegiate Rebel Expedition to Micronesia, and the University of Central Florida—ORSTOM Expedition to Vanuatu and has held several NSF grants. He was environmental consultant for Freeport-McMoRan Indonesia in New Guinea’s Punjack Jaya Mountains and was environmental consultant with Lotspeich and Associates in Florida. He developed and directed the scholarship program as a volunteer for the Mercury Seven Foundation, later renamed the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, for twenty-five years, served on its Board of Directors, and is presently a Foundation Trustee.
Professor Miller is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and 50-year Fellow of the Explorers Club of New York. He is a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Sigma, and Beta Beta Beta honoraries, received Acacia Fraternity Award of Merit medal, and is an honorary member of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory of Japan. Other affiliations include, American Bryological and Lichenological Society, British Bryological Society, Michigan Academy, Florida Academy of Sciences, and Space Coast Writers Guild. He was a licensed private pilot with his first flying lessons at age 14. He continues to be active in numerous professional activities, writing, and consulting since retirement from the University of Central Florida.
