Dr. Bill Withers, Wartburg College professor of communication arts, will help search for the new executive director of Iowa Public Television.

Daniel K. Miller, 61, announced Thursday that he will retire, effective April 2013, as executive director and general manager of the statewide public broadcasting system. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease last year and wants to spend more time on treatments and exercise to combat the incurable brain disease.

Miller has led IPTV since July 2002 and has been an employee for 37 years.

Withers, a two-term IPTV board member, is part of a group that will recommend a short list of potential successors. Miller, he said, would be a hard act to follow.

“Thanks in great part to Dan Miller’s leadership,” Withers said, “IPTV is one of the most-watched statewide public television networks in the nation, working wonders with an operating budget of $15 million.” 

Withers was appointed by then-Gov. Chet Culver to a two-year term in 2009 to fill the seat formerly occupied by the late Grant Price, a legendary Iowa broadcaster and Wartburg professor of communication arts. Gov. Terry Branstad reappointed Withers to a three-year term in 2011.

Withers also praised Miller as ” a longtime friend of the college.”