Dr Stewart Miller CBE FRS FREng, chairman of Loughborough University Council

Citation

(1999), "Dr Stewart Miller CBE FRS FREng, chairman of Loughborough University Council", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 71 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1999.12771eaf.011

Dr Stewart Miller CBE FRS FREng, chairman of Loughborough University Council

Dr Stewart Miller CBE FRS FREng, chairman of Loughborough University Council

It is with the greatest sadness and shock that Loughborough University announces the death of Dr Stewart Miller, chairman of Council, on Saturday, 7 August 1999.

Professor David Wallace, University vice-chancellor, paid the following tribute to Dr Miller:

"Stewart Crichton Miller was born on 2 July 1934. He was brought up in Kirkcaldy. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, obtaining a First, and he was the first of his family to go to University.

On graduation in 1954, he joined Rolls-Royce and spent his entire working career with that company, a career of the highest distinction in manufacturing industry. He rose to be main board director of engineering in 1985. In 1991 he became managing director of the Aerospace Group. In that period he had overall responsibility for the production of the RB211 series, and the Trent series of engines was developed and delivered under his technical leadership - easy to state, but think about it at 30,000 feet. He was also heavily involved in global collaboration on behalf of the company. He continued as the main board director of engineering and technology until his retirement at the end of 1996.

He was appointed to the Council of the University as pro-chancellor in 1994 and became chairman of Council in 1995. We have been exceptionally privileged to have benefited from his wisdom and fairness. He brought his qualities of complete commitment and personal integrity to everything that he did and he has been immensely supportive of all our aspirations, shaping them into a coherent whole at Council. He took great pleasure and pride in the achievements of this University, not only in Engineering and Sport, but across all of our academic disciplines and support services, as all who met him will testify.

Before, and particularly since his retirement, he was widely sought by other institutions, who recognised the value of his counsel. He served as a member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council between 1994 and 1998 and was instrumental in developing the concept of the successful Innovative Manufacturing Initiative. He was appointed to the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council in 1997. He was chairman of its Mergers Committee, an onerous and important role in forming the strategic direction of Higher Education in Scotland. He was also a member of the Court (equivalent to our Council) of Strathclyde University. Recently he successfully chaired a working party bringing together the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde with Scottish Enterprise, and in collaboration with the US software company Cadence. This success was instrumental in achieving one of the most significant inward investments in Scotland, through the establishment of major research facilities and an associated training programme. He contributed extensively to the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of which he was a Council member.

In such a remarkable career, many honours came his way. He was awarded the British Gold Medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society. Rolls-Royce was awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award in 1996 for the Trent aeroengine. He received Honorary Doctorates from Loughborough University, the University of Birmingham, and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. In 1986, he was elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 1996 to the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. These honours are a reflection of the immense esteem in which he was held by industry and academe. His achievements were recognised by the award of a CBE in 1990.

Stewart Miller was selfless in bringing to this University, and indeed to all his public services, those decisive qualities of commitment, integrity and wisdom, which were responsible for worldclass engineering and technology in a major UK industry. We are proud of his association with Loughborough University.

Stewart was the first to acknowledge the immense help and support which his wife Catherine gave so unstintingly. He greatly valued his family life with children and grandchildren. Their loss is so much greater than ours. Our thoughts are with them all."