Deceased December 22, 2014

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50th Reunion Book Entry

In Memory

After a long illness, Bruce Hyatt Miller died in December at his home on the Kohala Coast of Hawaii. Bruce came to Amherst from Columbus Academy in Ohio. He received his “1959” class numerals in baseball and football and also found time as a senior to contribute to the fledgling rugby club. After devoting a good bit of his time during his first two years adjusting to college social life, Bruce hit the books junior year and joined the Pre-Med Club. He often said that his favorite professors were Salmon, Schotte, Baird and Giordanetti. That led Bruce to a career in medicine, starting in internal medicine.

After serving two years in the Navy, including a year at sea and five trips to Vietnam, he specialized in dermatology. His position as a clinical professor of dermatology at the Oregon Health and Science University enabled Bruce to mentor numerous residents and medical students, to bring new drugs to the marketplace and to be a medical expert for both plaintiffs and defendants in numerous malpractice suits.

Bruce’s leisure time was spent scuba diving, water skiing, bicycling and serving with the ski patrol on Mt. Hood. He was a loving father to his four children and a devoted husband to his wife, Patricia. Bruce was also devoted to Amherst and to our class, as demonstrated by his serving as our class agent. One of his associate agents reported that he made fundraising “fun,” not work. He will be missed.

Skip Rideout ’59

50th Reunion

Places I've called home (dates):
Columbus, OH (1939-57) and {1963-65) Bronxville, NY (1957-59) Brooklyn, NY (1959-63) long Beach, CA (1965-67) Cleveland, OH (1967-70) Portland, OR (1970-2005) Bend, OR (2005-present).

My mentor(s) at Amherst include:
Bucky Salmon, Oscar Schotte, Prof. Baird, Elmo Giordanetti
Memorable highlights of Amherst that stay with me:
Friends at Psi U and in the classes, football, trips over the Notch and to Smith, spring and fall seasons.

Amherst made this difference to me:

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Taught me how to organize my time, how to study, and made me realize I wasn't the smartest guy in the class.


Significant impacts upon my life include:
Marriages and divorce, children, career choices, service in the USN during Vietnam war, moving to OR in 1970, turning 70 and still being around and functional.

A major turning point for me was:
At the end of my second year, realizing I'd better stop spending most of my free time at Barselotti's and Holyoke and start studying if I wanted to get anywhere, as in grad school.

Memorable travel has included:
Multiple dive sites in the Indo-Pacific region and Micronesia on SCUBA trips. Windstar cruise with our daughter from Istanbul to Athens with stops at multiple Greek islands in between.

Hobbies I have pursued:
SCUBA, skiing as a patrolman on Mt. Hood, water skiing, bicycling, and golf {pursued at an increasingly lower level of skill).

As I look ahead, this is what I still want to do:
Stay alive long enough to see my daughter, Kara, married with children, continue pursuing my hobbies.

Personal challenges that have influenced my life include:

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Divorce, having 4 children, dealing with managed care and the medical environment, osteoarthritis, and multiple orthopedic procedures, the last of which was a hip replacement that eventuated in temporary Oxycontin dependence.

 

Major choices that I made, failures I endured, and lasting satisfactions include:
Switching out of Internal Medicine after my tour in the USN and into Dermatology, this has resulted in my being able to live a relatively normal life. Changing my practice focus from private to full time clinical drug research in 1994. Failing in my first marriage. lasting satisfaction in the thousands of people I have helped both directly and indirectly in my practice, in the numerous drugs we have helped bring to market, and in the residents and medical students I have mentored as a Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the Oregon Health and Sciences University.

My deepest concerns about the world we live in today include:
Global warming, war in Iraq and Muslim extremism, poverty, universal health care

My feelings about getting older are:
Thrilled that I still am.
In retirement, these activities have captured my interest:
The same ones that have interested me all my life: sex, drugs, and rock and roll Oust kidding-wishful thinking) I continue to do a lot of medical-legal expert work in my specialty for both sides in malpractice cases.

Other thoughts I'd like to add:

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My second marriage to Patricia Dilworth in 1980 not only resulted in the birth of my only daughter, but also provided me with a nurse practitioner in my practice and a partner for my life. She has been instrumental in my professional success and has kept me on the straight and narrow (for the most part) in my personal journey.