FULLERTON COLLEGE CENTENNIAL
Partner With Us!
STAFF STORIES: PAUL MILLER
PAUL MILLER
History of Paul Miller at Fullerton College
I was born 21 March 1928 in Los Angeles, CA. After high school graduation, I attended Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles to learn the printing trade. When the Korean War began I enlisted in the Navy and worked as a printer in the service. After being discharged, I attended UC Santa Barbara to obtain a teaching credential in Industrial Arts.
During the summer of 1957, I was interviewed by John Mann, Fullerton District Personnel Director, H. Lynn Sheller, President of Fullerton College, and Ralph Porter, printing teacher at Fullerton College. I was hired and we moved to Fullerton that same year.
I started teaching with Mr. Porter in September 1957. At that time all the printing was done by hot type, better known as letter press printing. We taught two three-hour classes each day, five days a week for a total of 30 hours of class room teaching. The practical application of teaching was lecture and lives printing work. At that time, we printed all the material for Fullerton College, Fullerton High School District and Adult Education. During the week we worked our 30 hours teaching, plus we hired students to work after school and during the summer to complete all the necessary printed materials for the college. During the week, we printed one or two newspapers, a weekly for Fullerton College and every other week for the high school. The students at that time received hands on, practical experience of live printing work to be used by the school districts.
During the early years, the technical education faculty became a very close family. We usually met together at 3:00 each day at the “Hive” and talked about our teaching experiences. We also did things together off campus with our wives, such as attending college football games and going to dinner together. At that time, teachers were requested to work with students as club advisors and attend school social functions. I worked with the veterans club and also my wife and I attended most of their dances both on and off campus.
The major change came to the printing department when the technical education building was completed. The print shop was enlarged by moving in to the welding and the wood shop areas. At that time, we started to buy equipment to teach lithography and silk screening. After Ralph Porter retired, we went from one instructor to five, namely, Al Vanbeen, Max Hyman, Phil Crispi, Ben Castro and Dave McCormac. By the time of my retirement in 1989, the print shop eliminated the letterpress method of printing and went to offset or lithography. Presently, Dennis Howey is the full time instructor in the printing department and he has four part time teachers on staff.
One of my major satisfactions was to see many of my students continue in the printing trade, some of whom became owners of large printing companies. Bob Finch, co-owner of Penn Litho, Don Malloney, owner of a printing company and Jim Vendenberg, Crown Printing. Several of my former students have pursued teaching careers. Nancy Rennie is presently teaching in the printing program at Fullerton College and another female student, Terri Keiser, teaches at Riverside College in their printing program.
I retired in June 1989 after thirty-two years of teaching at Fullerton College. However, I have continued to do volunteer work in the printing program over the past twenty years. I was awarded the Distinguished Friend of the College Award in 1995 for my volunteer work.
Fullerton College and the Paul Miller Family
We moved to Fullerton in September 1957 so I could begin my teaching career at Fullerton College. We raised our sons and each of them attended Fullerton College. Our oldest son graduated and went on to receive an MBA and he works as chief financial officer for a large company. Our second son worked in the printing trade following in the footsteps of his father and he graduated from Fullerton College and is now co-owner of a large printing equipment and supply company located in Salt Lake City. Our third son played football for Hal Sherbeck and took building construction classes. Our youngest son attended Fullerton College and is now owner of a petroleum equipment company located in Orange.
My wife Mary also attended Fullerton College and enrolled in the medical program and she was able to re-enter the medical field and worked as a transcriber at Martin Luther Hospital for five years. She then returned to Fullerton College to earn a degree in fashion merchandising and she was hired by NOCCCD and became an instructor in the Adult Education Division.