Dr Albert Miller Grew Up Amish

June 24, 2006

Seeking Alternatives
Story Roberta Chinn

When Albert Miller finished college and applied to medical schools across the country, he got his very first rejection letter from the school he wanted to attend. Instead of accepting his fate, Miller called the University of Cincinnati with one simple request. I simply said, "I simply said, I know my application isn't the best you've had, but I have an unusual background. I asked for an interview, and if they felt after that, that I didn't belong there, I could accept that." Miller, now a doctor in Wooster, recalled. Miller was granted an interview and received another letter a short time later. "I couldn't even look at it when I got it out of the mailbox," Miller said. "Then I finally looked and the first word I read was 'Congratulations'." The application committee admitted Miller to the UC medical school as a minority student. It wasn't the first time he refused to take no for an answer, or refused to stop looking for the answer he sought.

Miller was one of eleven children who grew up on the family farm in southern Holmes County. The Millers were Amish, so young Albert finished with school in the eighth grade and worked on the farm until he was 18. Curious by nature, Miller questioned Amish religion. He didn't understand why they couldn't use electricity, cars, or phones and when he turned 18 he decided to try and find the answers himself. Miller found a job and bought a car, but was told by his parents either the car went or he did. Soon, he found himself locked out of the house.

When I left the Amish at the age of 18 it is fair to say that I'd made the decision to leave quite some time before that, Miller said. It was a combination of various questions totally left unanswered, as well as observing the world going on around me that I decided I was going to go find those answers. So when I turned 18 I got a job and went off on my search. In the process of looking, I tried to convince my Dad and one of the ministers of the church to have a meeting with me, but that never happened. So, I decided to find those answers my own way.

The first thing that Miller did was to read the Bible from cover-to-cover, to decide first, am I really supposed to be Amish? When I became satisfied that I wasn't, my next question was, now what do I do?

Miller was part of a youth group in Holmes County, and at a fall meeting of the group many of the members were saying goodbyes before leaving for college. When one friend asked Miller what he would be if he could do anything he wanted, Miller said it wasn't possible. When asked again, Miller said he'd like to be a dentist. That conversation led Miller to Hiland High School where he learned about GED testing, which he soon took and passed. The following year Miller applied to the Tuscarawas branch of Kent State. A counselor there, Joan Packer, questioned his decision to attend college and suggested that perhaps a vocational school might be a better choice with his level of education. Midway through his first semester, struggling with his classes, Miller went in to see Packer. "I went in and told her I was going to quit, that this was not where I belonged, Miller said." She told me that everyone else was four years ahead of me, and that if I was passing, I was doing fine. She didn't expect me to do that. "She helped me to get a handle on my courses and I managed to get all B's and C's. I never got another C."

Miller moved on to Kent State's main campus, graduating with a major in psychology and pre-med. After finishing medical school in 1983 and completing his residency in family practice, he spent his first year with Dr. Roy Miller in Millersburg, and then started his own practice a year later in Wooster.

In 14 years running a traditional family practice, Miller began to incorporate more and more alternative medicine ideas into his operation. Of particular interest to him was anti aging and aesthetic treatments, and he attended conferences and workshops involving those areas.

Miller achieved board certification on anti-aging medicine in 2002, and the next year began a new practice centered on wellness, the Evergreen Wellness Center, located on Gateway Drive in Wooster.

"I imagine my interest in alternative medicine traces back to my roots of being Amish. We used a lot of home remedies, and went to the doctor when we needed to, we never sent for him," Miller said. "That probably gave me a little more of an understanding." "I've also always liked taking care of healthy people more than sick people," he added. "I've always been interested in being well, looking well, eating well, all the way back to the beginning of my practice."

Today, the Evergreen Wellness Center practices both anti-aging and aesthetic medicine, including hormone replacement, nutritional consulting, laser treatments and microdermabrasion. Miller's expertise in both areas has allowed him to teach others as a member of the faculty of the National Procedures Institute. He teaches at various places around the country, and also offers preceptorships, where physicians interested in adding lasers or other new procedures to their practices can come and observe them at Evergreen.

Miller, 50, is married to Pat, who works with him at Evergreen, and has four children from his first marriage. His hobbies, when there is time, include flying. "I had a plane, but I sold it to buy a laser," Miller said. "Getting Evergreen off the ground has taken a lot of time," Miller added. I'd like to get my airplane back, and travel a lot more. I would like to enjoy life a little more than I do.

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