After graduating from the University of Wichita with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Max W. Milbourn ’38 immediately went to work as an assistant to then-university president William Jardine.
Eager to further his education, Milbourn went back to college, earning a graduate degree in economics from Harvard in 1941. He then went on active duty with the U.S. Navy, where he served from 1941-45, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander. His duty over, Milbourn returned to his alma mater, where he served as head of the journalism department until 1949.
Although he was hired as director of public service at Kansas State University and later went on to serve as assistant to the vice president there, Milbourn never lost ties with Wichita State, serving on the university’s alumni association board of directors, attending events and keeping in touch with many of the friends he’d made during his time there, including the late Laura (McMullen) Cross ’25, who worked for some 70 years in various capacities at the university.
A 1970 Wichita Eagle Beacon article by Don Granger noted that Milbourn was a “courteous and hospitable fellow” and someone who often opened his Manhattan, Kan., home for “fellowship and a kindly word” to Shockers who happened to be passing through.
Milbourn died Sept. 19 in Topeka, Kan.
