Lamar Miller never had children of his own, but while he taught at UF for 13 years, he viewed his graduate students as his own.
“He was very caring and thought very highly of his students,” said Tim Townsend, a UF engineering sciences professor. “He was always looking for their best interest.”
Miller, a retired UF environmental engineering professor, helped to revive the university’s environmental engineering program in the 1980s, Townsend said. He died in his sleep at Oak Hammock at UF, UF’s retirement community, on Jan. 1.
He was 81.
Miller retired in 1996, according to UF’s engineering department website. While at the university, Miller was known for being an exceptional professor, said Joseph Delfino, another retired UF environmental engineering professor.
The first time Delfino saw his future friend, Miller was moving into the next-door house with his wife, Juanita Spears. The two quickly became friends and were colleagues at UF for about 15 years.
“They were ideal neighbors, very pleasant, always accommodating,” Delfino said. “We took care of them, they took care of us.”
Before coming to UF in 1983, Miller helped write regulations controlling pollutants at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., Delfino said.
Kirk Hatfield, UF’s Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment director, said he remembers Miller’s cut-the-nonsense-and-get-things-done attitude when they did research together.
“He was a very friendly, very warm guy, very Southern-gentleman type,” Hatfield said.
Townsend was Miller’s graduate student in 1988, he said. After Miller retired, he recommended for Townsend to replace him, Delfino said.
Townsend remembers the high expectations Miller had for his students, but he knew he was learning from an expert.
“He was a strict instructor, but also someone who was most concerned about us learning the material,” said Townsend. “His students are still out there all over the United States, still practicing the lessons they learned from him.”
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Lamar Miller
