Support the CenterThe Humanities Center
at Miami University
John W. Altman
Entrepreneur and Professor
Reno, Nevada
John W. Altman has long been interested in the humanities. As a successful businessman and entrepreneur, he has remained cognizant of the underlying value of a liberal education. He has supported humanities at Miami for over 20 years and he has been instrumental in establishing the new Humanities Center and its programs.
Altman earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Miami University (Class of 1960) and a master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. He completed the Owner/President Management Program, a three-year certificate program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business, and an entrepreneurship executive program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Business. He received honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Miami University, Phillips Graduate Institute, and Sierra Nevada College.
For more than three decades Altman has been a highly successful entrepreneur. He owned, founded, and/or was a partner in eight businesses, two of which were sold to multi-national companies. He also served as senior manager of the multi-national corporations, Rohm & Haas and ICI.
Altman has taught extensively at the university-level, including Babson College and the University of California-Berkeley. At Miami University, Altman was named the first Richard A. Forsythe Professor of Entrepreneurship. He received numerous teaching award nominations in recognition of his impact on students. In 1994, he received the Outstanding Teacher Award from Miami’s Associated Student Government and, in 1997, the Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award from Miami’s Greek Association. In addition to serving as the first director of the Thomas C. Page Center for Entrepreneurship, Altman was the first person to be inducted into the Miami University Academy of Entrepreneurs.