Henry Altmiller once complained to physical plant about the doors on Main Building, which were not red, but varnished at the time.

The varnish had become old and sticky and Altmiller said they needed to be stripped and painted. A painter came in one day and asked Altmiller what color the doors should be. Altmiller was preoccupied and just said red.

 Since then, the red doors have morphed into a symbol for the university and has become a significant part of its branding. 

Altmiller finds the significance of the red doors pretty amusing because “there was maybe a millisecond of thought behind making those doors red,” he said.

Altmiller is a professor of chemistry and began teaching at St. Edward’s University in 1969. He has mentored countless students in chemistry research projects over the years. His Ph.D. work dealt with radiation chemistry, but he typically mentors students in research projects involving analytical chemistry, such as measuring metal accumulation in plants.

Altmiller grew up in Austin, Texas, and attended St. Edward’s High School, which was in Main Building at the time. As a student in an all-boys high school, “we were not averse to doing all sorts of strange things,” he said.

One time he and some of his friends pranked another student by carrying his brand new Ford Thunderbird up the steps of Main Building and placing it in front of the principal’s office. “We did that at night so the next morning, da dum. All sorts of excitement,” Altmiller said.

As a professor, Altmiller has taught classes in many disciplines and started a few, including History and Philosophy of Science and Research and Critical Missions —now known as Capstone. Altmiller said that this course led to the university-wide emphasis on writing.

Altmiller has worn many different hats while at St. Edward’s, including chair of the chemistry department, dean of the School of Natural Sciences, academic vice president, executive vice president and acting president of the university.

Altmiller’s favorite part about teaching undergraduates is meeting “new and interesting people every year. It’s never a dull moment,” he said. “And you enjoy hearing from them after they’ve left. And our undergraduates have done very well by and large once they graduate.”

Professor Mary Kopecki-Fjetland is one of Altmiller’s colleagues in the chemistry department and has known him for 17 years. Alumni commonly say that he was  an influential professor, Kopecki said.

Kopecki said that Altmiller sets high standards for his students, and they have an unparalleled respect for him. One example that Kopecki gave was an assignment that Altmiller gave for an upper-division chemistry course he teaches in the fall. The students were upset about the course, not because of the grade that they received, but “because they thought they let him down…and to me that was just ‘wow’ that’s how much respect they have for him,” Kopecki said.

Altmiller is dedicated to his students. They constantly come to his office and he always lets them in, even when he is busy. He is also humble, and although “he’s got all these accomplishments, he’s going to look at whoever’s in the room and say alright we’re on an equal plane,” Kopecki said. 

Senior Erick Reyes has had a class with Altmiller for every year of his college career.

“At first I thought he was very intimidating…I was afraid of him, and he always picked on me,” Reyes said. Once Altmiller became Reyes’s research advisor, “we built this bond where those barriers were broken.”

Some of Altmiller’s interests include brewing beer and riding trains. He calls beer-brewing “applied chemistry.” Altmiller does not delve particularly deep into the biological aspects of the brewing process since he considers himself to be strictly a physical chemist.

Kopecki remarked on Altmiller’s dry sense of humor, recalling him saying, “‘I’m a physical chemist and anything with more than two atoms makes me nervous.”

Physical chemists do not typically venture into the workings of multi-atom molecules, much-less microorganisms such as yeast.

Altmiller was once a Holy Cross Brother and joined the order after high school. He left the order several years after teaching at St. Edward’s and later got married. 

He has one son and one daughter. His son is an assistant district attorney, and his daughter is a chemist.