Early Life and Career
William Miller was born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. His family soon moved to Borger, the largest city in Hutchinson County, Texas, where Miller spent his childhood. After attending Amarillo College for the 1941-1942 school year, he received an appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He graduated in 1945 with a B.S. in marine engineering. From 1945 to 1949, Miller served as a Coast Guard officer in Asia and on the U.S. West Coast. During his time with the Coast Guard, he met and then married Ariadna Rogojarsky, a Russian emigre.
He received a law degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley in 1952, and joined the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City.
In 1956, Miller joined Textron, Inc as an assistant secretary. He became a Vice President of the company in 1957 and President in 1960. In 1968 he became Chief Executive Officer of Textron and was elected Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1974, a post he held until he came to the Federal Reserve Board.
Miller also forayed into politics. From 1963 to 1965, Miller was Chairman of the Industry Advisory Council of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity; in 1966 and 1967, he was a member of the National Council on the Humanities. Miller also served in the "think tank" Club of Rome. In 1968, he aided Hubert Humphrey's presidential campaign as chairman of a Democratic-leaning business group.
At the time he joined the Federal Reserve Board, Miller was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and of several corporations. He was also a member of the Business Council and the Business Roundtable and Chairman of the Conference Board and of the National Alliance of Businessmen.
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