BOONE—Among the more than 2,000 students receiving degrees from Appalachian State University in early May were Statesville resident Dent Miller and Blowing Rock resident Alice G. Roess.

Miller received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during ceremonies for the Reich College of Education. Roess received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Walker College of Business.

The honorary degrees were presented for Miller’s and Roess’s significant contributions of service and leadership to the university, the lasting impact they have made on the institution’s quality of education and the opportunities provided for students.

Dent Miller

Miller served on the Appalachian State University Foundation Board of Directors for 10 years. He was vice chair from 2006-07 and chair from 2008-09. He most recently served as vice chair for the Audit Committee, and as a member on the Advancement Committee, Finance Committee and Investments Advisory Committee.

He also has been an active member of the Appalachian Board of Visitors, the Former Athletes Association and the Yosef Club. He established the L. Dent Miller Scholarship for Statesville High School, for a graduate entering Appalachian as a freshman.

Miller was the 2005 recipient of the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award and a 2003 inductee into the Reich College of Education’s Rhododendron Society.

Miller came to Boone in 1951 to attend Appalachian State Teachers College and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education in 1955. He also earned a master’s degree from UNC Chapel Hill.

An Iredell County native, Miller had a 25-year career in education as a teacher, coach and school administrator in the Cabarrus, Salisbury and Statesville school systems. His second career was in the restaurant business, which he entered in 1988. He held executive positions with the Mom ‘N’ Pops chain, Connor Management Group where he developed the Sagebrush Restaurant chain, and the Claremont Restaurant Group, a subsidiary of Fresh Foods Inc. consisting of Western Steer, Prime Sirloin and Sagebrush restaurants.

He retired from the restaurant industry in 1994 and founded LDM Properties management company, of which he is president.

Alice G. Roess

A native and former resident of St. Petersburg, Fla., Roess was appointed to a four-year term on the Appalachian State University Board of Trustees in 2009. She moved permanently to Blowing Rock in January 2008 after spending more than 15 summer and fall seasons in the High Country with her husband, the late Judge Martin John Roess.

Roess’s contributions to the university, both in terms of leadership and philanthropy, will leave an indelible mark on campus. In 2010, she announced a $3 million estate gift to the university to benefit the Walker College of Business’s Holland Fellows Program for Business Study in Asia Endowment, the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts and the Athletics Facilities Enhancement Campaign. International travel, the arts and athletics are her personal loves.

Her commitment is among the top 10 cumulative gifts or commitments made to the university by an individual, corporation or foundation.

Roess is a member of the trustees’ student development and business affairs committees. She serves on the campaign steering committee that will help the university chart and reach its future fundraising goals. As a result of her love of gardening and for the environment, she has been part of a campus greening committee, which is a student-led initiative to replace trees damaged during the 2009 ice storm and add evergreen trees to campus.

In addition to her leadership at Appalachian, Roess has been an active volunteer in civic, charitable and social organizations in both the Blowing Rock and St. Petersburg, Fla., communities.

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