Craig Miller MD

Dr. D. Craig Miller, the Thelma and Henry Doelger Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at Stanford University, is, by his own admission, a cowboy and a maverick. He attributes his independent nature to growing up on cattle ranches owned and run by his physician father in northern California.Dr. Miller reflects in a 2012 interview for the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS) 100th anniversary publication In the Words of the Presidents, “I really treasure what I learned working hard as a young boy on the ranches; that is where I became a cowboy, I guess. During the summer, my brother and I would disappear for weeks on horseback with a pack of mules to drive the cattle to the high country, something that teaches you self-reliance, independence, and resourcefulness. The work ethic seems to have stuck with me, but why the cowboy stuck, I have no ide.