Miller ’70: “Protect That Legacy”

When David Miller ’70 came to VMI from his native Pennsylvania, he’d only been to Virginia twice, and he’d never laid eyes on the Institute until Matriculation Day. Graduating from high school at only 17 years old, Miller knew that a structured environment would suit him best, and so he’d been searching for a military college.

Miller was also seeking an education at a price point that would fit his family’s budget, and as the eldest of four children, he was aware that his parents’ resources would be spread thin in the years to come. Once the expense of uniforms was paid—cadets were required to purchase their uniforms back then—VMI was an affordable option.

Four years later, Miller graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, friendships forged through the Rat Line, and a set of precepts that would shape the rest of his life. Today, Miller is a retired healthcare executive and former member of the VMI Board of Visitors who makes philanthropy toward the Institute one of his highest priorities.

For Miller, supporting VMI financially is the least he can do for an institution that did so much for him, especially in the area of building relationships with others. “The first lesson I learned at VMI was that relationships are paramount to success,” he noted.

As an economics major, Miller developed close relationships with the faculty in that department, and he fondly recalls his “superb mentor,” Col. Alexander Morrison, Class of 1939, Ph.D. and longtime department chair. “He truly tried to get us to understand the basic tenets of economics,” said Miller of Morrison. “And he was always very jovial.”

Miller also recounted how Morrison was a “fine gentleman” and a steady presence on post, walking to class every day with his golden retriever. After Miller graduated, he kept in touch with Morrison, and the mentorship that had begun in Scott Shipp Hall deepened into a friendship, with Miller visiting Morrison and his wife, Jo, at their home on the banks of the South River near Lexington. “It’s easy to forget your professors, but I would just enjoy that hour or so visiting with him. His wife liked flowers, and I tried to bring her a nice arrangement of some sort every time I went there. They were just very, very dear people,” Miller stated.

Relationships with brother rats, too, deepened and enriched Miller’s VMI experience. From the first week on post, he bonded immediately with his roommates, including John Ludt ’70, a member of the Keydet football team, and Paul Dickinson ’70, a tennis player. “I had good roommates, and we stuck together for the entire 4 years,” Miller noted. “They were both athletes. I was not, and so I got exposed quite early to what a difficult time athletes have at VMI because they balance the academics, the military, the class system, and then they have to play their sports.”

As a rat, Miller learned from J.I. Orrison ’67, his dyke and also a football player, and it was Orrison who helped Miller secure a position as a member of the hop and floor committee. Relationships with peers were also behind Miller’s selection as one of the representatives of his class on the Honor Court in his 1st Class year, and today he recalls with humility the trust his brother rats placed in him.

Miller even saw the importance of relationships off post when he went into downtown Lexington to shop, eat out, or attend services at Lexington Presbyterian Church. “There was the respect that was shown to you when you went into a store, when you went into a restaurant,” he recalled. “And I realized that VMI and [Washington and Lee University] were integral to the success of the economy in Lexington, but it just felt to me … this community really likes the cadets at VMI.”

At graduation, Miller got a deferment from the U.S. Air Force and enrolled in graduate school at the University of Virginia, where he would earn a Master of Business Administration degree. He’d done well academically at VMI, but his class at UVA was filled with graduates of Ivy League schools, and the atmosphere was intimidating, with the schedule built around classes 5 days a week, study sessions each evening, and quizzes or papers due each Saturday. “[Ned Haley ’70] and I were the two from this little military school, but it didn’t take long for us to figure out that our experience at VMI really prepared us,” said Miller. “Had I not had the experience at VMI of managing 10 or 20 different things every single day, I’m not sure that I would have succeeded at UVA,” he continued. “That foundational structure at VMI was just critical.”

His VMI connections were also instrumental in helping him find a path into the field that would be his life’s work. Miller was looking for a summer job right after his VMI graduation, and his best friend, Peel Dillard ’70, just happened to have a cousin who worked in healthcare administration in Richmond, Virginia. That summer, Miller accepted a position at St. Luke’s Hospital in Richmond, and it was there that he also met the woman who would become his wife of 50 years, as Helen Bowles was an operating room nurse at St. Luke’s.

Over time, Miller built his career through the precepts he’d learned at VMI about honesty, forging relationships, and the importance of treating others with kindness and respect. In 2016, Miller retired as president and chief operating officer of Community Healthcare Systems in Franklin, Tennessee, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company. At his retirement, CHS operated approximately 200 hospitals with over 135,000 employees.

In 2015, after a surprise phone call from Pete Ramsey ’72, Miller began his service on the VMI Board of Visitors, a position he calls “the honor of a lifetime.” As a member of the board, Miller quickly learned that VMI was just as complex an operation as the hospital system he worked for. Serving on the Appeals Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Executive Committee, Miller came to appreciate all that goes into maintaining and advancing the Institute’s status as one of the nation’s highly regarded senior military colleges.

In recognition and gratitude for all he’d gained, Miller began giving back to the Institute soon after graduation, first by supporting the Foundation and then broadening his support to include the Keydet Club. On the academic side, he and Helen established the Alexander H. Morrison 1939 Professorship in Economics and Business, which is currently held by Col. Tinni Sen, Ph.D.

In support of VMI athletics, Miller endowed a scholarship for female cadet-athletes in memory of his wife, who died in 2022. “There’s the old adage—behind every good man is a good woman—and my wife was so supportive of everything I did at VMI, especially my time on the board,” said Miller. “I was looking for a way to honor and memorialize what she had done. If we’re going to be serious about women’s sports at VMI, I want to do what I can to help our women succeed.”

In addition, Miller has donated to the General J.H. Binford Peay III 1962 Endowment for Academic Excellence in Helen’s honor and contributed to name the memorial garden at the forthcoming VMI Center for Advancement in her memory.

Most recently, Miller has revised his estate plans to include the Institute in his will. For him, it’s the right thing to do for a place that taught him the importance of doing the right thing. “VMI has a superb reputation,” he stated, “obviously in the Commonwealth, but also outside the Commonwealth. And I think all of us who are graduates who have benefited from the VMI experience should be obligated to protect that legacy.”