A Life's Mission Learned at the Mount: Rich Miller '74

From Patient to Patient Advocate

It was a night that would change his life forever. Mount senior Richard Miller, his eyes heavy with fatigue, was heading back to campus after working a double shift as a waiter at a local restaurant in 1974. “But I never made it back,” he says.

Instead he became the victim of a horrific car accident. With little or no traffic passing through on the secluded back road, “I was trapped underneath that car for over three hours,” says Miller, who is today chief executive officer of Virtua, a nonprofit, multi-hospital healthcare system headquartered in New Jersey

(WATCH Rich discuss how a Mount education shaped his professional choices).

Miller drifted in and out of consciousness as he waited for help to arrive.  But when his thoughts were clear, “I was taking stock of my life,” says Miller, who was majoring in business at the time. “I can honestly say that night changed my life forever.”

His recovery was long, but successful.  “I saw the world around me differently,” he says.  “And, I appreciated it so much more.” A man of faith before the accident, he became even more committed to his faith following it. “I was so grateful that I was a student at a school such as the Mount, where people cared about one another and supported and encouraged one another,” he says.

To this day the Mount holds special memories for Miller. He proposed to his wife Mary Lee at the Grotto. “She is my inspiration and support,” he says. The couple have two daughters, Kristen and Heather, and a granddaughter, Natalie, who is one year old.

Since that long-ago accident, Miller has become a man on a mission. He is the patient who has become the patient’s advocate. Virtua was formed in 1998 by the merger of two health systems and now consists of four hospitals and is chosen by more patients than any other healthcare provider in South Jersey. Virtua treats cancer, delivers babies and has more than 1,800 physicians on its medical staff.

The success of Virtua is rewarding. But for Miller the opportunity to impact lives is even more rewarding. “I am each person lying in each bed,” he says. “Frightened, anxious and hopeful. I have never forgotten how that felt. And I never will.”

Rich Miller on Business Ethics

 - Rich Miller is the CEO of Virtua, a healthcare system headquartered in Marlton, New Jersey and graduated from Mount St. Mary's University in 1974.  The Mount is honored to have Rich featured during the 2011-12 Presidential Lecture Series.