David Miller Honored by Indiana Memorial Union with Biddle Award
09/30/2025
David Miller, J.D. ’77, was celebrated with the Ward G. Biddle Visionary Award for his work with the Indiana Memorial Union Board. Miller serves as the board’s alumni representative.
"The impact he has had as an alumni representative is unlike any other that I have seen in more than 30 years of working with Union Boards and alumni reps on three different campuses," said Hank Walter, executive director of the Indiana Memorial Union. "David loves working with young people, undergraduates, and has a special talent for it and a heart for it that never quits."
Named after the Indiana Memorial Union’s first director, this award recognizes those individuals who exhibit the qualities of Mr. Biddle: integrity and passion, as well as the organizational skills to implement his vision.
“Working with students, supporting their creative approaches to programs, and helping them with areas they find challenging such as fundraising and meeting alumni, administrators and faculty,” are some of the things Miller said he enjoys most about his role on the board. In addition, he said he appreciates “seeing students expand their comfort zone and enhance their problem-solving skills, and the opportunity to give back to IU for all the opportunities it afforded me.”
Now in its 116th year, the board of directors is comprised of 18 students and four nonstudents. It is the major campus organization that creates and executes programming for the Bloomington Campus student body. The programming includes bringing speakers to campus, concerts, publication of student literature, health and wellness programs, field trips to restaurants and entertainment venues, on campus film showings, promoting professor/student interactions, science fairs and much more.
In his role on the board, Miller provides guidance and insight to the students, helping to connect students with intra university resources such as faculty and academic departments, and with outside resources like alumni and community groups.
Miller earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at IU in Bloomington in 1971, and his juris doctor at IU McKinney, summa cum laude, in 1977. He practiced employment and labor law at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath in 2012. Not long after that, he began taking classes at IU for the joy of it and to keep his mind sharp. Miller took approximately 18 classes from 2013 to 2023, he said. “My motivation is I love to learn. I take classes in areas for which I had no time as an undergrad,” he said. Miller said his responsibilities with the Union Board and the fraternity where he serves as an advisor have not allowed him to take classes, but he plans to resume that in 2026.
David Miller, left, was a member of the Indiana Memorial Union Board as a student and attributes the skills he learned during that experience with enabling him to get his first job. He is with Hank Walter, executive director of the IMU.
