Movie chronicles 50 years of Miami Middletown’s impact

For the past 18 months, Miami University Middletown officials have interviewed more than 100 people about its 50th anniversary.

Those more than 100 hours of raw video have been edited to two hours and will be shown during the Red Carpet Movie Premiere from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 31 at Dave Finkelman Auditorium on the Middletown campus.

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The video will feature former and current students, faculty and staff members, and community members who helped make the regional campus possible, said Brennan Burks, director of public relations and marketing strategy. The movie is divided into 11 chapters that trace the history of the university from its infancy to its widespread impact on the region.

MUM certainly made an impact on Tim Carberry’s life.

“It changed me forever,” Carberry said. “God opened the door and let me have a chance of going to college. It really gave me a good chance to become a teacher.”

Carberry, the youngest of four children, said he dreamed of being a teacher since he was 3. After graduating from Springboro High School in 1970, Carberry enrolled in MUM in September 1970, four years after it opened.

He graduated from Miami University with his bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in June 1974 and later with his master’s in Education. He taught in Carlisle Local Schools District for 30 years. After retirement, he missed his students and went back as a substitute for three years, he said.

As a first-generation college student, having the opportunity to attend MUM allowed Carberry to live with his parents, thus reducing the cost of college. He also worked as a Student Librarian at the Gardner-Harvey Library.

“It was a wonderful place with caring instructors and professors,” Carberry said. “Everything I wanted, I got. I was blessed to have Miami Middletown.”

Carberry has become a great ambassador for MUM, encouraging his family and Carlisle students to continue their education at the regional campus. His brother, Jim, enrolled at MUM after he was laid off, then earned his degree and worked as an accountant.

He said other Carlisle educators, including former Superintendent Jim Oldfield, graduated from MUM.

The evening will include an intermission, post-movie reception and toast to the regional campus’s 50th anniversary. DVDs of the film and 50th anniversary apparel will be available for purchase, with all proceeds benefiting the “First to Fifty” Scholarship, Burks said.

Eventually, the video will be available to be checked out of the MUM library, he said.

For more information, call Ruth Willis at 513-727-3471. Make your reservation by Aug. 28.

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