LA JOLLA, CA—La Jolla Institute for Immunology mourns the passing of former Board Member Ernest “Ernie” Charles Miller, who died late last year at the age of 93. Miller served on the Institute’s first Board of Directors from 1988 to 2003.
“Ernie was a steadfast supporter of LJI during its earliest days and helped get the Institute quickly out of the starting blocks,” says Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer. “His confidence and guidance were crucial to the success the Institute is experiencing today. We will deeply miss him.”
Miller grew up in the Bronx, NY, and upon turning seventeen enlisted in the U.S. Navy V-1 program, which made it possible for him to attend New York University’s Engineering School for a year. In 1943, Miller was called to active duty by the Navy, and was sent to Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA. There he was selected for Yale University’s recently established Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program. Upon graduating from Yale in Feb. 1945, with a BA in Psychology, Miller was selected and soon after reported aboard the U.S.S. San Diego, then part of the task group operating off Okinawa and Japan.
In June 1946, Miller left the Navy with the rank of Lieutenant (JG), and returned to Yale for a further year of study; and in September of the following year entered the graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. An MA in Psychology followed in Feb. 1949. In September 1950, Ernie joined Richardson, Bellows, Henry & Co., Inc., a firm specializing in behavioral science consultancy for business management.
In 1955, Miller moved to American Standard, headquartered in New York City, and became a Human Resource manager. From there a move to Cresap, McCormick & Paget, Inc., one of the largest consultancy firms in the country, became possible. Miller flourished in his profession, eventually joining the American Management Association in 1964. From here it was a natural progression first to research-project director, then to editor-in-chief, and finally to president of the AMACOM division. Finally, Ernie became group vice-president of the AMA Publications Group where he oversaw the editing, publishing and marketing of thousands of business books and publications for AMA until his retirement.
In 1983, he founded his own consultancy firm: Miller, Hellwig & Associates. He remained a registered psychologist in the State of New York, as well as a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organization Psychology, and a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia University’s Graduate Business School.
