Matt, BBA '57 and Dot Miller, BBA '57
Baylor Legacy Award

Awarded to individuals who demonstrate extraordinary service and philanthropy to Baylor or to causes that fit our mission as a Christian university.
Matt Miller, BBA '57, was a senior at Waco High School in 1953, the year that his father died and months later an F5-category tornado ravaged the city, claiming the life of a classmate. As the City of Waco rebuilt, so too did Matt’s family. His father’s boss helped Matt’s mother get a job to provide for her three children, and Matt suspects the same gentleman also facilitated the baseball scholarship that allowed him to attend Baylor that fall.
A three-year baseball letterman while at Baylor, Matt had turned down offers from the University of Texas at Austin and Rice University, as well as an offer to play professionally. After earning his accounting degree, he went on to a brilliant business career that included leadership roles with Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble.
Alongside Matt for most of that journey has been his wife, Dot, BBA '57, a native of Walnut Springs, Texas. They met while students at Baylor, where she worked in the registrars office. Their courtship began after graduation, while Matt was stationed in the Army at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, and they wed in 1959. Dot encouraged Matt to complete his certified public accountant exam during their first year of marriage while he was working for Ernst and Ernst.
By his late 20s, Matt was executive vice president of finance and administration at Duncan Foods Company, best known as the manufacturer of Maryland Club Coffee. When Duncan Foods became a Coca-Cola subsidiary, he became chief financial officer and later served as Coca-Cola's director of corporate real estate. After 26 years with Coca-Cola and its subsidiaries, Matt returned to Houston as senior vice president of finance and administration of Maryland Club Foods Inc.
As soon as they were able, the couple began to give back to the school that had provided a kick-start to Matt's successful career. They established the James Abernathy Endowed Scholarship in the Hankamer School of Business, named for Dot's late brother. The Millers' gifts also provided for a new clubhouse and lights for Baylor's baseball program. Perhaps their most lasting contribution to Baylor Athletics is Baylor Ballpark, of which they are among nine founding donors.
Matt retired in the early 1990’s and has since been an active investor, community volunteer and business mentor in Houston.
