Queen Elizabeth II has named University Professor Arthur Miller a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The CBE order of chivalry, one of the United Kingdom’s highest honors, recognizes civilians and military personnel for public service and other distinctions. Few Americans have received the honor since its establishment by George V in 1917. The CBE ranks include Christiane Amanpour, Eric Clapton, Alec Guinness, Stephen Hawking, Anthony Hopkins, Elton John, Angela Lansbury, Sting, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Catherine Zeta Jones.
The honor recognizes Miller’s service to the United Kingdom, including his gift of more than 1,800 Japanese woodblock prints by 19th-century artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi to the American Friends of the British Museum. They were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in spring 2009, and at the Japan Society in New York in spring 2010. Further, over a 15-year period, Miller moderated Hypotheticals, a series of high-level panel discussions aired on the BBC and Granada Television covering critical contemporary issues, based on the Fred Friendly dialogues Miller moderated on PBS in the U.S.
Posted on February 18, 2011