Phillip Raymond Shriver

News Death Notice

SHRIVER, Phillip Raymond Dr. Phillip R. Shriver passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 23, 2011. President of Miami University from 1965 to 1981, he was born in Cleveland, Ohio on August 16, 1922, the son of Raymond Scott Shriver and C. Ruth Smith Shriver. His older sister, Barbara Ruth Shriver Taylor, lives in Tampa, Florida. Phil grew up in Garfield Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, and graduated from John Adams High School in Cleveland in 1940, as president and valedictorian of his class. A member of the Glee Club and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale with honors in history, he earned graduate degrees from Harvard and Columbia, and received honorary degrees from ten other universities as well as honors from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Federal University of Parana in Brazil. He served as an officer in the U. S. Navy in World War II, and saw action aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Murray in the Marshall Islands, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. He began his teaching career at Kent State University, where he taught from 1947 until 1965, also serving as Dean of the College of Arts and Science from 1963 to 1965, when he was named the 17th President of Miami University. During his tenure at Miami, new campuses were opened in Middletown, Hamilton, and Luxembourg. Ten doctoral programs were initiated on the Oxford campus and a total of 42 new buildings were constructed on the Miami campuses during his tenure. Besides authoring or co-authoring seven books and more than two hundred articles, he is also remembered for his service as Chairman of the Council of Presidents of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cincinnati, President of the Ohio Historical Society and the Ohio Academy of History, a member of the Lakeside (Ohio) Board of Directors, an active member of the Oxford Rotary Club and the Oxford Presbyterian Church, and his lifelong association with Delta Upsilon fraternity. Phil considered the 52 years spent in the classroom and the relationships he had with faculty and staff and thousands of students who knew him as "Uncle Phil" to be his most important professional accomplishments, and his greatest joy. On April 15, 1944, Phil married the love of his life, Martha Damaris Nye of Bellevue, Ohio, whom he had first met while she was a student at Wellesley College. They became the proud parents of five children Carolyn (Bill) Shaul, Susan, Melinda (David) Williams, Darcy, and Raymond Scott II (Vicki); eight grandchildren (Trevor and Ryan Helwig, Lindsay and Andrew LaVine, Katherine and Ryan Williams, and Cameron and Kyle Shriver); and four great-grandchildren (Taylor, Avery, Marin, and Anna Helwig). The family wishes to give their most heartfelt thanks to Dr. Erika Brudzinski and to the staff at Woodland Country Manor for their loving and dedicated care over the past months. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that Phillip Shriver be remembered with a donation to any one of the following, all of which were special to him: Miami University Phillip R. Shriver Scholarship; the Miami Glee Club Director's Fund; the Lakeside Association; the Oxford Presbyterian Church; or the charity of your choice. A memorial service will be held at a later date. The Smith & Ogle Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. Condolences may be sent online to www.smithoglefuneralhome.com