IDD's President, Dr. Mary Guy Miller, inducted into Virginia Tech's Academy of Engineering Excellence

IDD's President, Dr. Mary Guy Miller, inducted into Virginia Tech's Academy of Engineering Excellence
Blacksburg, Virginia, April 29, 2010

Dr. Mary Guy Miller, current president of NCTC, was inducted into Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering Academy of Engineering Excellence on April 22, 2010. Dr. Miller joins an elite group of 97 individuals out of more than 55,000living engineering alumni.

The Academy of Engineering Excellence was founded in 1999 by F. William Stephenson, past dean of the College of Engineering and the College’s Advisory Board. This year marked the eleventh anniversary of the first induction.

“The Academy represents another way Virginia Tech’s College of Engineers has selected to showcase our loyal ambassadors. These alumni represent people who have lived their lives representing the spirit of Virginia Tech’s motto, Ut Prosim, ‘That I May Serve,’ said Richard C. Benson, Dean of the College of Engineering.
When Mary Miller showed her father the letter informing her of her nomination to the Virginia Tech Academy of Engineering Excellence, the 89-year-old retired engineer from McDonnell Douglas had tears streaming down his cheeks as he told her, smiling, “You came from good genes.” She agreed, saying she inherited her father’s mathematical abilities, and she had strong role models who encouraged her along the way.
Miller entered Virginia Tech in 1968, when women were less than a tenth of the student population. As a female in a predominantly man’s world, she was sidetracked for a while before truly finding what doors her talents could open. She sought her first degree in elementary education because she knew women could get teaching jobs.  Certified to teach in K-12, she landed her first full-time position as a sixth and seventh grade teacher in Pulaski County, Va.  She took a sabbatical after three years to have her two children, Matthew and Mandy.

Her traditional route was about to stop. In 1979, after she had returned to work, teaching math through the Marion, Va., Job Corp., she decided to take a class in programming at Wytheville Community College.  She arrived at the fully enrolled class with an attitude. “I planned to force add (the course) even though the professor, Bill Durham, a retired NASA programmer, said no one could be added.  I stayed after class, and told him, ‘he wanted me in his class, and that I would be his best student, and I would even help the others.’ “Her tenacity worked, and she credited him with inspiring her “to think more, to do more, and to return to Virginia Tech for my computer science (CS) degree.”

Virginia Tech was just beginning to move its faculty into computing, and the Provost at the time, David Roselle, was requiring two faculty members from each department to take Dr. J.A.N. Lee’s CS course. Since Miller was Lee’s assistant, she taught a good number of these classes, and by the end of the term, she had four job offers from within the University. Fortuitously, she selected the one from Mitch Giesler who was the Dean of Extension. “It was a life-changing job. I had one year of a guaranteed salary, and then I needed to fund myself with grant money.  Interactive video was just taking off,” she said, and she entrenched herself in the new arena.

The job was to investigate new and exciting ways to deliver information to the citizens of the Commonwealth, supporting the outreach mission.  Joe Meredith, today the director of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Park, was working at Newport News Shipbuilding at that time, and had come to campus promoting a new authoring system for interactive video.  He challenged the university to get involved and Giesler agreed, giving Dr. Miller the assignment to investigate the power of the technology and write grants.

Dr. Miller is founder and President of Interactive Design and Development, IDD, Inc., in Blacksburg, VA.

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