Malcolm Taylor never took any math classes in high school.
But the vocational high school graduate, now 77, took more than half a dozen classes taught by Paul Miller at what is now Baltimore City Community College, beginning with a basic, noncredit math course.
"I believe Mr. Miller was the teacher that had the greatest impact on me and what I chose to do. He was the one who had the greatest impact on the trajectory of my life," said Taylor, who has worked as a math professor and statistician for the U.S. military.
Many students who have learned from "Mr. Miller" over the past 76 years say he had a profound effect on their careers as teachers, engineers and other professions in which they have applied their math skills refined by the Baltimore County teacher. Miller will soon be the first Maryland teacher inducted into the National Teacher Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas.
Miller, who now teaches at Ner Israel Henry Beren High School in Pikesville, will join teachers from Indiana, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington for the three-day induction beginning June 15.
The five inductees were selected by a national committee. All were required to have at least 20 years of experience
"I don't think I deserve it," said Miller, who has taught at more schools than he can remember. His children tracked down his lengthy resume by searching through Social Security Administration records. He's worked for Baltimore City Public Schools, Loyola University, Johns Hopkins University, Coppin State University, Goucher College and many more. He still loves his job.
"I can't see why I should get rewarded for something I enjoy," he said of the award.
Miller was 18 when he began teaching in 1934 after attending teachers college at what is now Towson University. There, he said he excelled in everything, including handwriting, which he jokes "was something because usually girls are the best." Because he did so well in school, he was one of the few students to get a job during the Great Depression amid high unemployment.
And when he got to his classroom, he recalled the students joking that he looked like one of them. He said they teased him, "Was I sent down from 6th grade?"
After 76 years of teaching, "You learn from the students and pick up what they like," he said. When he had scheduled a test recently, he recognized that his students were not yet ready and gave them several additional days.
"I don't blame it on the students. I see they are not prepared," he said, adding that "I remember the sternest teacher I had in high school — he would mark every little thing in your notebook, not anything you do worked out," he said.
And after 76 years, Miller makes a new lesson plan each day, even creating his own worksheets. Included in his display at the hall of fame will be the boxy hectograph machine that he used to make copies when he started teaching.
"Every year he does something different," said Jacob Schuchman, principal of Ner Israel Henry Beren High. "He's so careful in his preparations." He said Miller comes in several hours before classes each day and work on his lesson plan in the school library.
"He's the type of guy a lot of teachers can learn from," Schuchman said.
Miller has taught a wide range of students from college undergraduates to prisoners, but he said elementary school was the most difficult because it requires separate lesson plans for all the different subjects.
After World War II, he helped teach veterans at the country's first junior college, which later became Baltimore City Community College, where Taylor was his student.
Taylor has taught as an adjunct professor at Aberdeen Proving Ground, and later as a fellow at the American Statistical Association, and also worked at the Royal Statistical Society in England and the Army Research Laboratory. He said Miller simply "removed the frustration so many students who have with mathematics."
In high school, Taylor said his vocational courses centered around machine shop. He didn't know he liked numbers until he began taking courses with the revered "Mr. Miller."
"Once I was exposed to it, I didn't find it intimidating," Taylor said. "It was something that I knew would require effort on my part, but with a reasonable amount of effort, I could achieve it."
Taylor said Miller's disposition helped him learn. "He was not excitable. He was easygoing. When he came into class, he knew what he wanted to teach. It was easy for me to follow and grasp."
Miller played down the honor, and said teaching is its own reward.
"I feel happier doing it then I would retiring," he said. "There's nothing momentous about it"