Miles Myers

Miles Myers (1931–2015) was the leader of the Bay Area Writing Project and former Executive Director of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and director of the National Writing Project (NWP) in its early years. He was also a teacher union leader, serving as president of the California Federation of Teachers for five years.

Early years Myers was born in Newton, Kansas on February 4th, 1931.

Education Myers earned a bachelor's degree, two master's degrees and a PhD in rhetoric and composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a co-founder and teacher consultant of the Bay Area Writing Project. After serving for many years as senior vice-president of the California Federation of Teachers, he then served for five years (1985-1990) as president. He spent seven years as the Executive Director of the National Council of Teachers of English. During 1997-1999, he served as the Executive Director for the California Subject Matter Project.

Research Myers was a scholar with 22 publications under his name.

Boards and commissions He served for 40 years as the Chairman of the Board of Alpha Plus Corporation; 30 years on the CCCTE's Curriculum Study Commission. He was Chair of the Research Foundation of the NCTE and served five years on the Board of the BASRC (Bay Area School Reform School in Fremont, California.

Personal life and death Myers was generally passionate about life. Following a heart bypass, Myers joined an aerobics class. Cheered on from his mostly female classmates, Myers happily attended these classes for ten years. Additionally, Myers faced adversity when he served as a teacher consultant to teach other writing instructors, who weren’t pleased with his teachings.

Myers died at the age of 84 on December 15, 2015 in Oakland, from complications of heart disease. He was married to Celeste for 59 years, and had three children, Royce, Brant and Roz. He had three sisters, Jean McClard, Joan Hope Cecil and Patty Gatlin Dennis. He had six grandchildren and one-great grandchild.