Each year, the Colorado State University Alumni Association honors distinguished alumni and friends for their service to their communities, their professions, and the University.
Bert Miller’s (Colorado State ’69) professional efforts have been exclusively in the American manufacturing arena. Early in his career, Miller was instrumental in building a chemical plant in West Virginia. This start-up added 16 jobs to a rural area during a difficult recession in 1974. Since that time, Miller has continued to build jobs in America by opening plants in Iowa, Tennessee, and Indiana.
Miller’s commitment to “Make it in America,” a manufacturing extension partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, goes beyond building and operating manufacturing plants. All of his company’s raw materials and equipment, including resins, molds, and presses are sourced in North America.
Miller is a former chairman of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and the former director of the National Association of Manufacturers. In 2007, he was recognized as the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
Inner-city education is Miller’s number one avocation. He is the director of the Big Shoulders Fund, which is the largest scholarship source for Chicago’s 25,000 inner-city Catholic school students. He is proud of the program’s extraordinarily high school graduation rate of 96 percent.
Miller and his wife, Dee Dee, have been married for 37 years and have three children. Family business is more than a catch phrase for the Millers. Sons, Albert and Giles, the sixth generation, are actively involved in the management of the family company. Their daughter, Deirdre, is still debating her role in the family business. For now, Chicago winters are a tough sell to the California girl.
