Rudolph J. Miller (1934–2017): Oklahoma Ichthyologist, Teacher and Mentor, and Naturalist Painter

Abstract

T HE ichthyologist, coauthor of the Fishes of Oklahoma book, naturalist painter, and long-time professor of zoology at Oklahoma State University, RUDOLPH JOHN MILLER, affectionately known as ‘‘Rudy’’ to his friends, passed away in Stillwater, Oklahoma on 10 December 2017 at the age of 83. He was born in Gbely, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) on 25 September 1934. Rudy is survived by his three children and their spouses and grandchildren. His obituary in the Stillwater, Oklahoma newspaper noted that Rudy was a good husband, father, and provider, a man of great talent and intelligence with a wonderful sense of humor. Rudolph J. Miller came to America with his mother, Josephine Brunofski, wife of James Miller, as a young child and grew up in and around Rochester, New York. Although conceived in America, the tradition in Rudy’s family was that his pregnant mother return to ‘‘the old country’’ to have her child. As a young boy Rudy learned to love the outdoors from going fishing with his brother and he learned to draw and paint the wildlife of the area. He studied the area wildlife near his home and loved to watch the birds on Lake Ontario. He later entered Cornell University and graduated in 1956 with his bachelor’s degree in Conservation. While at Cornell, Rudy was closely associated with like-minded classmates and future luminaries who loved natural history including Bruce Collette, Tom Poulson, Tom Frazetta, and Fred Gehlbach as well as his own brother, Bob (‘‘R.V.’’ Miller), in the Department of Conservation in Fernow Hall. R.V. went on to become a well-known marine mammal scientist for NOAA in Seattle. C. Richard Robins, himself later a world-famous ichthyologist, was one of their lab instructors in vertebrate zoology as was Helen (Rudy’s future wife) in Botany. ‘‘Helen was a delightful vision in our Botany labs and it always amazed me that Rudy persuaded Helen to marry him!’’ (Bruce Collette, pers. comm.). After marrying Helen in 1957, the new couple moved to Tulane University where Rudy studied under the legendary Royal D. Suttkus. Rudy’s master’s thesis was ‘‘A Review of the Seabasses of the Genus Centropristis,’’ which he later published in Tulane Studies in Botany and Zoology (Miller, 1959). Rudy loved to tell about Suttkus rousting out him and other students in the middle of the night in the midst of a tropical downpour to go collect fishes in cottonmouth and alligator laden habitats. Under Sut’s tutelage, Rudy learned the wonderful fish fauna of the southeastern United States. After receiving his master’s degree in 1958, Rudy and Helen returned to Cornell where they each earned a Ph.D. Rudy studied under another fish legend, Edward C. Raney, switching to study fish behavior for his dissertation. His dissertation and subsequent publication on ‘‘Behavior and Fig. 1. Rudy Miller in 1971 examining specimens of Eupomacentrus jenkinsi (now Stegastes marginatus), a species of small damselfish. Rudy made behavioral observations on this species while snorkeling and by installing underwater video cameras during his sabbatical at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island when he worked with Ernie Reese whom he knew since he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Netherlands.