39 PAUL MILLER From humble beginnings working at small-town Oklahoma newspapers as a teenager, Paul Miller rose through the ranks to become an internationally influential figure in journalism. His inspiring story is a testament to hard work, integrity, and a commitment to the highest principles of the news media. Miller was born 1906 in Diamond, Missouri, to a Christian Church minister’s family. His first taste of the newspaper world came in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, where he worked as a reporter and briefly served as city editor for the local daily paper while still in high school. His passion for journalism only grew from there. While an undergrad at Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University), Miller worked at the Daily Oklahoman and student newspapers. He even took a year off to serve as publisher and reporter for the Okemah Daily Leader before graduating in 1931. This early experience doing all sorts of journalism jobs in Oklahoma set him up to rise rapidly after joining the Associated Press in 1932, the same year he married Louise Johnson. Over the next decade, Miller moved his growing family ten times as he took on greater responsibilities at AP bureaus nationwide. The pinnacle came in 1942 when he became AP’s critical Washington bureau chief. Miller guided national political coverage during World War II and headed AP’s staff covering the 1945 United Nations conference establishing the world body. His leadership impressed media mogul Frank Gannett, who recruited Miller in 1947 to join his major newspaper company. Just a decade later, in 1957, Miller was elected Gannett’s president and embarked on an ambitious expansion program that took the company public. Not content with that success, in 1963, Miller was also elected president of the Associated Press, an organization he had joined over 30 years earlier as a young journalist. He became the national spokesman for press freedoms and ethical journalism practices. During his tenures atop Gannett from 1957-1978 and the AP from 1963-1977, Miller traveled the globe, meeting world leaders and advocating for the vital role of a free press in society. As he put it, journalism’s “actions must be determined not by mere compliance with state or federal law, not by public attitudes, but based on doing the right thing.” In recognition of Paul Miller’s pioneering media career, which traced an inspirational arc from small-town Oklahoma to the commanding heights of global journalism, his alma mater, Oklahoma State University, named its prestigious journalism school building in his honor. The Paul Miller Building is an enduring monument to this man of integrity who never forgot his Sooner State roots. MORE THAN JUST AN OK JOURNALIST Photo courtesy of Ethan Sample/O’Colly
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAxMjk=