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Samuel Miller, the director of the Newark Museum who led its award-winning expansion, died Thursday.

(Newark Museum)

Samuel Miller, the visionary director of the Newark Museum who is credited with sparking the resurgence of the state’s largest city, died Thursday morning. He was 83.

Miller served as director of the museum from 1968 until he retired in 1993. During that time, he expanded its collections and built its national reputation through a major renovation of the facility, located on Washington Street.

The fundraising parties he hosted with his wife, Rosetta, in their apartment on Mount Prospect Avenue were legendary, as was Miller’s sharp wit and love of opera.

But his vision for the museum – and the expansion of its collections and its facility – will be his lasting legacy, friends and colleagues say.



Miller hired Princeton architect Michael Graves, and with his board raised millions for the museum's renovation, which included permanent galleries for African art, American art, Native American and decorative arts. He also restored the 1885 Balantine House, since named to the National Register of Historic Sites.

“Sam loved life more than anyone I’ve ever known. His passion for the Newark Museum was boundless, and through this amazing institution he gave a healthy dose of what he called ‘beauty’ to the countless lives he touched,” Graves said. “To me he was a good and loyal friend, never to be replaced.”

Completed in 1989, the Graves project helped pave the way for the construction of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Prudential Center years later.

“Newark wasn’t in a good place at the time, and nobody thought it could be done,” Newark Museum Board Chairwoman Arlene Lieberman said. “And he did it. It was remarkable. He made it a national museum.”

Born in Dillard, Ore., in 1930, Miller graduated from Stanford University and then moved east to pursue graduate studies at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. He was stationed in Japan during his service in the U.S. Army, and that was when he first became interested in Japanese art and culture, and when he began collecting folk and contemporary art.

Miller served as assistant to the director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo before being named the Newark Museum's fifth director.

Mary Sue Sweeney Price, who succeeded Miller and served as director until her retirement earlier this year, recalled a devoted mentor who emphasized a commitment to both the community and to “art of the highest order.”

“It is not possible to walk through the galleries today without thinking of a ‘Sam story,’” Price said. “ While we have lost him, his consummate taste will always be evident in every gallery and classroom, and in his legacy of brilliant acquisitions and gifts to the collection.”

After his retirement, Miller worked with the World Monuments Fund, where he served as a trustee. He was the recipient of honorary doctorates from Rutgers and Seton Hall universities, and was honored by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums and the Prudential Foundation.

Miller was predeceased by wives Nell Schoellkopf Ely Miller and Rosetta Averill Blanton Miller; a sister, Patricia Gilliam Miller; and a brother, Loren Lee Miller, Jr. He is survived by nieces and nephews and their spouses, and by his caregiver, Maria Denis, of Newark and her husband Joao Pineiro.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated Nov. 15 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral in Newark. A reception will follow at the Newark Museum.



Donations may be made in Miller's name to the Newark Museum, 49 Washington St., Newark, NJ 07102 or to the World Monuments Fund, 350 Fifth Ave., Suite 2412, New York. NY, 10118.

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