John D. Millett

John David Millett (March 14, 1912 – November 14, 1993) was the 16th president of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and first chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents. During his career he served as the Senior Vice President of the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, D.C. Millett Hall at Miami University and an academic building at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, are named in his honor.

John David Millett was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, of parents who had come from small towns in southwestern Indiana. He was the first of two children, the only son, born to Grover Allan Millett (1884–1953)and Helen Elizabeth (Welch) Millett (1886–1968). His father had been a successful businessman in the 1920s, but went bust in the Great Depression. Millett attended Indianapolis public schools and was graduated from Shortridge High School in 1929. He received a Rector Scholarship and entered DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1929 and was graduated with highest honors in 1933. Widely recognized as a campus leader, he was editor of the school newspaper, Phi Beta Kappa, and president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. After a year traveling around the world, he entered Columbia University as a graduate student in 1934 in political science with a specialty in public administration. On September 2, 1934, he married Catherine Letsinger of Bloomfield, Indiana, whom he had dated at DePauw and who was earning her degree in the School of Journalism at Columbia. He received his PhD in January 1938 at the age of 25 and spent one year as postdoctoral student at the London School of Economics. He returned to teaching at Columbia University in 1939. At the beginning of World War II, he joined the personal staff of Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, commander of the Army Service Forces, in the Pentagon (which Somervell had designed and built as the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). He rose from the rank of major to full colonel and received the Legion of Merit for his military service.

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