Photography professor leaves ‘legacy’

In spring 2010, with the growth of Point Park University's photojournalism and photography programs grew a need for the School of Communication to hire a new faculty member to take on the responsibilities that accompanied the expansions.

Heather Starr Fiedler and her fellow faculty members predicted the hiring process would be "long and complicated," until they interviewed Patrick Millard.

"It was one of those interviews where I think, much like meeting your husband or wife, we just all knew when we met him that he was the person we were going to hire," said Fiedler, dean of faculty of the School of Communication. "He had a very specific niche in fine art photography and a passion for it like we'd never seen. We knew that he could take the program to a whole new level, which is what we've always dreamed of."

Millard joined the program in fall 2010, and although he died at age 30 on Dec. 12, 2011, he may still be able to achieve that initial goal.

During the year leading up to his death, Millard worked to create a "sweeping" curriculum proposal that would introduce approximately a dozen courses to Point Park's Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography to replace those which students currently take at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

Currently, the degree requirements are just about split in half between Point Park and Filmmakers, Fiedler said from her office on Monday. The ultimate aim is "to be in a place with equipment, facilities and faculty where all of the courses could be taught at Point Park."

"Patrick handed me the final draft that was ready to go to the curriculum committee just a few days before he died," Fiedler said. "… We called a special meeting over the break and approved the curriculum proposal that he had written."

Yesterday, the School of Communication faculty met for the next step andpassed the proposal unanimously.

Now, it will continue on to the university's curriculum committee and then to the Faculty Assembly. If those steps are completed in order and without complication, the new curriculum will be ready for students next fall.

"In my 11 years here, it's probably the biggest curriculum proposal I've ever seen," Fiedler said. "I think it will be his legacy to have done that for us."

Another one of Millard's contributions that will keep his memory alive at Point Park is the Speaking Light photographic lecture series, which the School of Communication plans to continue. His goal for the program was to expose his students to different photographers' work and philosophies.

"[Millard's] first project that he wanted to do when he got here was to create this photographic lecture series and it was always his baby," Fiedler said.

However, Millard never highlighted any of his own photography; in Fiedler's words, he acted as "a mother who always does everything for her kids and never anything for herself." She and the faculty decided that in "turning the tables" and making Millard the focus of his creation, it would serve as "not only a memorial service, but a wonderful way to celebrate his life and his teachings."

Now that the faculty has made that possible, the upcoming Speaking Light lecture on Friday, Jan. 27 at 6 p.m. in the JVH Auditorium will honor Millard, his artistic work and his commitment to the progression of the photography program at Point Park.

According to Fiedler, the faculty's "knee-jerk reaction" was to arrange a service for Millard immediately, but after some consideration, they decided out of courtesy to wait until his parents had held the funeral.

By that time, the university was on holiday break, so she found it well-suited to bring students, friends and colleagues together in Millard's remembrance at an event he invented when the spring semester began. 

His students, however, could not leave last semester without closure. Remington Brooks, a junior photography major, and Kristen Thomas, a 2011 photography graduate, organized a candlelight vigil at Point State Park to help those who knew Millard "make sense of it all" and to heal.

"We were making all of these preparations and printing photographs [for the illuminated paper bags] and at the same time helping each other through what was happening," Brooks said on Sunday in the Lawrence Hall lobby.

Brooks was working on the establishment of the photography club at the time of Millard's hire, so it was the "obvious choice" to ask him to advise the club.

"He was here all the time and it made me want to be here all the time," Brooks said. "All he cared about was making sure that the students had what they needed and that they were engaged and really loved photography."

Other than the Speaking Light events and proposed curriculum changes, Millard left behind some non-tangible items, as well.