Phillip Shriver

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Phillip R. Shriver (born 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American historian and college administrator who was president of Miami University from 1965-1981.

After graduation from John Adams High School, where he was president and valedictorian of his class, he received a four-year Cleveland Alumni Scholarship to Yale University. At Yale he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, served as regimental commander of the Naval V-12 unit, and graduated with honors in history. During World War II he served as a lieutenant (j.g.) aboard a Pacific Fleet destroyer and participated in the Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns. After the war he completed his master's degree at Harvard and his doctorate at Columbia University.

From 1947-1965 he was a member of the history faculty at Kent State University where he was initiated into Delta Upsilon Fraternity as advisor to the Kent chapter. He wrote Years of Youth in 1960, a history of Kent State University. He left Kent State in 1965 to became the president of Miami University until 1981. He oversaw enormous growth of Miami and was popular with students who nicknamed him "Uncle Phil". During and after his presidency, he taught popular classes on the history of Miami University and the history of Ohio, using Walter Havighurst books as texts. His Miami history lectures became the basis of a book Miami University: A Personal History.

In 1983 he was elected president of the Ohio Academy. In 1984 he became the president of the Ohio Historical Society.

Miami University's student center is named the Phillip R. Shriver Center in his honor.

Preceded by
John D. Millett
President of Miami University
1965 – 1981
Succeeded by
Paul G. Pearson