Roger P. Miller's interests ranged from medieval literature to Swedish spinning wheels to motorcycles.
The associate professor taught for 30 years at the University of Minnesota and was named a Distinguished Teaching Professor in 1999. He received rave reviews in student evaluations and his innovative geography classes always overfilled, said Abdi Samatar, chairman of the U's Geography Department. "By all student accounts, he was a world-class teacher."
He died May 30 in Ann Arbor, Mich., of injuries suffered in a crash during his fourth annual long-distance motorcycle trip. He was 59.
Miller was a "Renaissance scholar," added Robert McMaster, vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies. "He is one of the few individuals I know who could bridge between the humanities and social sciences. ... He was widely read and thoughtful. That enabled him to connect things that a lot of people can't connect."
McMaster, who knew Miller about 20 years, said he was an engaging teacher who traveled the world studying cities and taking hundreds of pictures, some of which he added to his global cities lectures. "He was a keen observer of his environment," McMaster said. "He put all these things together in creative ways."
Miller was a graduate studies adviser for Tim Mennel, now a senior editor at the American Planning Association in Chicago. He said Miller's signature course, "The City in Film," was offered annually. In that class, he used various films, such as "City of Hope" and the James Dean classic "Rebel Without a Cause" to discuss how movies influence perceptions of cities compared to urban realities shaped by industrialization, immigration and other factors.
"Roger had a disarming way of getting people to see much more than the vision of a city behind the film," Mennel said. "He was not the kind of adviser who would tell you what to read or study. He wanted to create curious spirits, like his own. ... He loved talking about cities, what makes them vibrant and how they evolve."
Mennel was one of the last to see Miller before he crashed while riding his motorcycle to see his only son graduate from Harvard University. The night before the crash, Miller had stayed at Mennel's home in Chicago. Their conversation had touched on recent movies, "but his main interest was the big motorcycle trip he had planned on the way to his son's graduation," Mennel said. "He had so many varied interests and so much life; the conversation just flows all over the place."
Miller's partner of 14 years, Marie Minervini, said he liked to ride solo, at his own pace, on long cycle trips. He met people, took lots of pictures and during a trip to Alaska last year, had started blogging.
"He was like my encyclopedia. When we traveled, he knew so much about what we were seeing," Minervini said. "People loved talking to him. He was engaging but never condescending. ... Everyone got the feeling that when you talked to him, he was centered on you and nothing else."
Miller excelled in teaching and serving the university, McMaster said. He had served several times as a dean, and chaired or sat on committees focused on subjects that included student grant awards, admissions, basic course requirements and a writing improvement board.
"He put so much time into university service that he didn't have a lot of time to publish papers," McMaster said. "In many ways, Roger's legacy isn't through books and publications; it is really through his students."
Besides Minervini, of Falcon Heights, Miller is survived by his son, Jonah, of Cambridge, Mass.; his parents, Maurice and Ree Miller of Del Mar, Calif.; a brother, Philip, of Minneapolis, and a sister, Nancy, of Portland, Ore. Services will be held this fall.
Jim Adams • 612-673-7658
