HICKORY — City of Hickory Assistant City Manager Steve Miller received the Samuel A. Greeley Local Government Service Award from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Public Works Association, the city said May 21, 2026. The award was presented at the May 19 City Council meeting.
The city said the Greeley award recognizes long-serving public-works professionals who have contributed to local government and to APWA practice. It began as a national APWA honor, later discontinued nationally; APWA-NC kept the tradition.
Recipients must have served a single local public agency honorably and continuously for 30 or more years and maintained at least 15 years of APWA membership.
Miller began with Hickory in August 1993 and has more than 32 years with the city. Roles listed are Street Division Manager, Assistant Public Services Director, and Public Works Director. In March he was promoted to Assistant City Manager.
He is a 1991 Appalachian State University political science graduate, a past president of the APWA-NC Streets Division, and liaison for the Kenworth neighborhood.
“The North Carolina APWA has played a major role in my professional growth throughout my career with the City of Hickory. The relationships I’ve built with colleagues across the state have strengthened both my work and the City as a whole. I’m truly honored and grateful to receive this recognition,” Miller said.
The city included a note on Samuel A. Greeley, born in 1882 on Chicago’s North Shore, educated at Harvard and MIT, a refuse-disposal engineer who with Rudolph Hering published “The Collection and Disposal of Municipal Refuse” in 1921. Greeley died in 1968.
The May 21 notice does not list other 2026 honorees or a cash prize.
Official release from City of Hickory, May 21, 2026. https://www.hickorync.gov/assistant-city-manager-steve-miller-receives-samuel-greeley-local-government-service-award
