Clarence William Miller

C. William Miller, professor emeritus of English literature at Temple University, died on April 10, 2013. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Gettysburg College in 1936 and a Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Virginia in 1940. He joined the faculty at Temple University in 1947, where he remained for the rest of his career, holding the title of professor emeritus of English literature at the time of his death. Although he was mainly a Shakespearean and Elizabethan Renaissance scholar, he was also an eminent source on Benjamin Franklin’s printing career, which he spent twenty years researching. His efforts were rewarded in 1976, when he became the first American recipient of the bibliographical prize granted by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers for his monumental bibliography, Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia Printing, 1728-1766 (1974). In his home borough of Lansdowne, Penn., he served on the Borough Council from 1972 to 1980 (with stints as vice president and president), coached baseball and track and field, was an assistant scoutmaster for a Boy Scout troop, and taught Sunday school and men’s Bible classes at the First Presbyterian Church of Lansdowne.