Hall of Fame Member Biographies
Helen Muller
Every institution of higher education in Oklahoma has a person who has shaped that institution and has become a legend; in the case of Oklahoma Panhandle State University, that person was Helen Muller. Born in 1906, Helen Muller graduated from Frederick High School in 1923, earned a B.A. from the Oklahoma College for Women in 1927 and in 1936 an M.A. from Oklahoma A&M College. She was recruited to teach history at Panhandle State in 1936 when the region was experiencing the “dust bowl,” but even the dust bowl was not as forceful as Helen Muller. She brought the strict discipline she had learned from the Oklahoma College for Women and rooted it in Panhandle State. She became a full professor at Panhandle State while assuming administrative duties; she was at various times the Dean of the College, Dean of Students, and College Registrar. When acting as Dean, it was her duty to enforce student discipline. Although only five feet tall and weighing barely 100 pounds, Helen Muller knew how to make wayward football players quake in their sneakers. Among her outstanding achievements at Panhandle State was earning accreditation from the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges in 1958 and from the National Council on Accreditation of Teacher Education in 1960. She retired in 1972, and by request of the residents of the school and community, the Board of Regents for Oklahoma A&M Colleges named one of the women’s dormitories Helen Muller Hall in her honor. She passed away in Denver in January 1984. For her exemplary service to higher education, the Heritage Society proudly inducts Helen Muller into the Higher Education Hall of Fame.