William Lucas Utter, long-time Miami University professor of communications, director of broadcasting, and station manager of WMUB died on Feb. 28, 2024, in Columbia, South Carolina. He was 94 years old.
Utter was known by his colleagues at Miami as “Bill,” while close friends and family called him “Luke.”
“He always struck me as the model for what I expected a professor to be,” said Professor Bruce Drushel, chair of the department of media, journalism, and film. “He very seldom raised his voice, and in fact, he very seldom got animated about very much. So much so that when he did, you knew to take notice, that this was really important. I’ll just use the word classy. It’s the word that I can think of that best fits my memory of Bill.”
Utter’s career at Miami began in 1957. During a speaking event on WMUB’s history in 2008, he spoke on the early days of programming for WMUB-FM and the construction of the radio tower on Miami’s campus.
In the early days of WMUB-FM, Utter said programming mainly consisted of taped content and only some live shows. He wanted to change that and create a “co-curricular experience” for Miami students to learn about radio and television.
“In ’57 when I got here, the station was on the air three days a week, daytime only, and no weekends and no summer,” he said. “It wasn’t until the intervening couple of years that the schedule began to fill out a little bit.”
During their time in Oxford, primarily during the summers, Utter and his wife Dixie helped start up local theater programs in the area, OxActs and Miami University Summer Theater.
“They were heavily involved in both of those start ups and keeping it going,” said their son, Bill, who described his father as kind, loving and charming.
“He was really a very classy individual, he said. “One of his most enduring qualities was that he listened to people. When you talked to my father, he drew more out of you than you thought you were going to say, and he was always more interested in you than talking about himself.”
He said his father was also invested in his students at Miami.
“He always believed that the students should have as much creativity and freedom as possible so that they could learn television and radio as they were doing it,” he said.
During the summers, when professors had time off, it was not uncommon for professors to have side hustles, Drushel said. Utter spent time contracting with a company to sell coating that was used for various animal udders.
“I always thought that was one of the more unusual things that I’ve heard anybody earn money doing,” said Drushel.
Utter was born on June 17, 1929 in Jefferson City, Missouri, to William Thomas and Alma Utter. His family soon moved to Granville, Ohio, where his father taught history courses at Denison University. William attended Denison and majored in theater. He met his wife, Dixie, during his time at the university.
Upon graduating from Denison, Utter and Dixie performed in plays across New England and Europe in towns and on military bases. After serving two years in the U.S. Army, he married Dixie in 1953 and the couple moved to Denver. There, Utter earned a master’s degree in theater at Denver University and worked as a cameraman, producer and director at TV stations.
He retired from the university in 1995. In 2014, he and his wife moved to Columbia, South Carolina to be closer to family.
He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Dixie Campbell Utter, 96, his son William Arkell Utter, his daughter Kate Utter Mills, as well as his six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
His family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the William L. Utter Scholarship, Miami University Foundation, 926 Chestnut Lane, Oxford, Ohio 45056-9972, or the Union United Methodist Church.
