Biography:Norton George Miller

Norton G. Miller
Born	(1942-02-04)February 4, 1942 Buffalo, New York, US
Died	December 7, 2011(2011-12-07) (aged 69) Syracuse, New York, US
Alma mater	University at Buffalo Michigan State University
Scientific career
Fields	Bryology; Quaternary paleobotany
Institutions	Harvard University Herbaria New York State Museum
Thesis	Late- and postglacial vegetation change in southwestern New York State (1969)
Author abbrev. (botany)	N.G.Mill.

Norton George Miller (1942–2011) was an American bryologist and paleobotanist. He was the president of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society from 1985 to 1987.

Biography

Norton G. Miller grew up in the towns of Orchard Park and South Wales south of Buffalo, New York. He roamed the woods with the family dog, became an avid birder, and studied natural history, especially botany, under the mentorship of Mabel Hinde James. He served as her assistant and also became an Eagle Scout. He graduated in 1959 from Holland Central High School in Erie County, New York and graduated in 1963 with a bachelor's degree in biology from the University at Buffalo. In 1964 he married Heather Swan. During their marriage of over 47 years, she accompanied him on his bryological collecting trips and collaborated on several scientific projects. In 1969 he graduated with a Ph.D. in botany from Michigan State University. As a postdoc, he was an assistant curator at the Arnold Arboretum from 1969 to 1970. For several years he worked on a research project, the Generic Flora of the Southeastern United States, led by Carroll Emory Wood Jr.

For five and one-half years ending on June 30, 1980, Miller was the supervisor of the Gray and Arnold Arboretum Herbaria and chair of the Herbarium Committee, and then continued on the staff as botanist at the Gray Herbarium and the Arnold Arboretum. In 1983 he joined the staff of the New York State Museum and eventually retired there as emeritus curator of bryology and Quaternary paleobotany He was on the editorial boards of ten journals.

Dr. Miller’s research interests included plant systematics and floristics, especially of bryophytes and seed plants; quaternary paleobotany and paleoecology and the tertiary and quaternary history of the bryophyta. His field work in these areas led him to explorations throughout the northern latitudes from New York and New England to Michigan, Colorado, the west coast, the southeast, Alaska, Russia, Scandinavia, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and Japan. He authored more than 250 scholarly manuscripts, books, book chapters, abstracts, and electronic media ...

Upon his death he was survived by his widow, a son, and one granddaughter. The Adirondack Mountain Club created the Dr. Norton G. Miller Memorial Fund in his honor.

Selected publications

• Miller, Norton G. (1966). "Noteworthy Hepaticae from New York State". The Bryologist 69 (1): 115–118. doi:10.2307/3240494. ISSN 0007-2745. 
• Miller, Norton G. (1970). "The Genera of the Cannabaceae in the Southeastern United States". Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 51 (2): 185–203. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.7039. 
• Miller, Norton G. (1971). "The Genera of the Urticaceae in the Southeastern United States". Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 52 (1): 40–68. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.9110. 
• Miller, Norton G. (1971). "The Polygalaceae in the Southeastern United States". Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 52 (2): 267–284. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.9114. 
• Miller, Norton G. (1973). "Lateglacial Plants and Plant Communities in Northwestern New York State". Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 54 (2): 123–159. doi:10.5962/p.324708. 
• Miller, Norton G. (1976). "Studies on North American Quaternary Bryophyte Subfossils I. A New Moss Assemblage from the Two Creeks Forest Bed of Wisconsin". Occasional Papers of the Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany (9): 21–42. doi:10.5962/p.305840. 
• Miller, Norton G.; Howe Ambrose, L. J. (1976). "Growth in Culture of Wind-Blown Bryophyte Gametophyte Fragments from Arctic Canada". The Bryologist 79 (1): 55–63. doi:10.2307/3241866. 
• Solberg, Robert M.; Miller, Norton G. (1979). "A Floristic Catalog of Battle Park, University of North Carolina Campus, Chapel Hill. I. Bryophyta". Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 95 (1): 1–16. 
• Mishler, Brent D.; Miller, Norton G. (1983). "Distributional Studies of Massachusetts Bryophytes". Rhodora 85 (844): 421–432. 
• Jackson, Stephen T.; Miller, Norton G. (1983). "Paleoecology of a Fossil Plant Assemblage from a Pre-Wisconsinan till in Southern Illinois". The American Midland Naturalist 109 (1): 120–135. doi:10.2307/2425522. 
• Miller, Norton G.; Alpert, Peter (1984). "Plant associations and edaphic features of a high arctic mesotopographic setting." Arctic and Alpine Research". Arctic and Alpine Research 16 (1): 11–23. doi:10.1080/00040851.1984.12004387. 
• Miller, Norton G. (1989). "Late-Pleistocene Anthelia (Hepaticae), an arctic-alpine, snow-bed indicator at a low elevation site in Massachusetts, U.S.A.". Journal of Bryology 15 (3): 583–588. doi:10.1179/jbr.1989.15.3.583. 
• Miller, Norton G. (1993). "Modern research with bryophytes: An overview". Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club 25 (1): 1–10. 
• Miller, Norton G.; McKinley, Daniel (1997). "Nomenclatural Status of the Moss Grevilleanum serratum, with Notes on the Early 18th Century American Scientists, L. C. Beck and E. Emmons, Senior". The Bryologist 100 (2): 198–203. doi:10.2307/3244049. 
• McDaniel, Stuart F.; Miller, Norton G. (2000). "Winter Dispersal of Bryophyte Fragments in the Adirondack Mountains, New York". The Bryologist 103 (3): 592. doi:10.1639/0007-2745(2000)103[0592:WDOBFI2.0.CO;2]. ISSN 0007-2745. 
• Miller, Norton G.; McDaniel, Stuart F. (2004). "Bryophyte dispersal inferred from colonization of an introduced substratum on Whiteface Mountain, New York". American Journal of Botany 91 (8): 1173–1182. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.8.1173. PMID 21653473. 
• Miller, Norton G. (2005). "The bryoflora of Mt. Everett, Taconic Mountains, Massachusetts". Rhodora 107 (929): 34–51. doi:10.3119/04-13.1. 
• Miller, Norton G.; Fryday, Alan M.; Hinds, James W. (2005). "Bryophytes and lichens of a calcium-rich spring seep isolated on the granitic terrain of Mt. Katahdin, Maine, U.S.A.". Rhodora 107 (932): 339–358. doi:10.3119/05-7.1. 
• Miller, Norton G. (2009). "Mosses Adventive and Naturalized in the Northeastern United States: New Examples and New Distributional Records". Rhodora 111 (946): 218–230. doi:10.3119/08-7.1. 
• Feranec, Robert S.; Miller, Norton G.; Lothrop, Jonathan C.; Graham, Russell W. (2011). "The Sporormiella proxy and end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinction: A perspective". Quaternary International 245 (2): 333–338. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.06.004. Bibcode: 2011QuInt.245..333F. 
• Teale, Chelsea L.; Miller, Norton G. (2012). "Mastodon herbivory in mid-latitude late-Pleistocene boreal forests of eastern North America". Quaternary Research 78 (1): 72–81. doi:10.1016/j.yqres.2012.04.002. Bibcode: 2012QuRes..78...72T. 
• Robinson, Sean C.; Miller, Norton G. (2013). "Bryophyte diversity on Adirondack alpine summits is maintained by dissemination and establishment of vegetative fragments and spores". The Bryologist 116 (4): 382–391. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-116.4.382. 
• Miller, Norton G.; Robinson, Sean C. (2015). "Bryophytes of Martha's Vineyard and Nomans Land, Massachusetts, USA". Rhodora 117 (972): 431–453. doi:10.3119/15-09.