William Richey Miller, M.D. (1917-2009) was a physician at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene, Oregon where he also served a term as Chief of Staff. He was the first physician from Eugene to be selected to the Pacific Northwest Society of Internal Medicine. Miller graduated from the University of Oklahoma Medical School in 1942, going on to complete the first year of his internship at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Oregon, at which time his commission in the Army Medical Corps was activated. While in the army, he worked on the medical wards at Brooke General Hospital at Fort Sam Houston, and attended the School of Tropical Medicine at Walter Reed Hospital and the School of Malariology in Panama. After three years in the army, Miller returned to Oklahoma, completing two years of residency before returning to Portland for his last year of residency. Miller worked in private practice and ultimately moved to Eugene in 1949 where he began his work at Sacred Heart Hospital.

In this interview, conducted in 2003, Miller describes some of what he experienced during his clinical years as a medical student at a charity hospital connected to the University of Oklahoma Medical School. He shares anecdotes about practicing medicine during segregation including how the dean of the medical school addressed a racially motivated complaint from the state legislature. He talks about his years serving in the army and how a well-timed injury during training prevented him from being deployed overseas during World War II. Miller shares stories from different house calls and emergencies and provides context regarding advances in medicine during his career, specifically in cardiology. While discussing his 35 year career, he covers a wide range of topics including the polio epidemic, abortion, the lack of medical care for people living in poverty, managed care plans, rising medical costs, and the doctor/patient relationship.