Posted on May - 13 - 2010
Miller, Wilson inducted into Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame
KINGSPORT — Local business leaders Jerry L. Miller, M.D., and Keith Wilson were inducted into the Junior Achievement of Tri-Cities Business Hall of Fame during a gala event Thursday night at the MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center.
Miller is president and founder of Holston Medical Group, P.C. of Kingsport, and Wilson is publisher of the Kingsport Times-News. The two were honored for their contributions to the region through their entrepreneurial and civic activities.
The Business Hall of Fame has honored 50 laureates since its inception in 1994.
“Our laureates have distinguished themselves through outstanding business achievements, community service and philanthropy,” said Jim Powell, master of ceremonies and past laureate. “We are pleased to honor their accomplishments and celebrate their pioneer spirit with you as inspiring role models for youth in our region.”
Criteria for selection includes a demonstration of business excellence, courageous thought and action, inspired leadership and dedication to the community.
“Tonight, we are united in a vision dedicated to preparing the region’s young people for productive lives as outstanding citizens,” Powell said. “We’re recognizing individuals who believe that providing opportunity, knowledge and leadership will model for our young people that the free enterprise system is an important part of a robust society.”
Dr. Jerry Miller
Miller says the ideals that guided him in his career as a physician have helped him as the leader of the region’s largest group of physicians.
“I have the following absolute for myself,” Miller said. “Number one, this is the most noble of professions. Number two, it’s a privilege to be a doctor. Number three, with that privilege and that nobility comes great responsibility. 24/7 you must be the best doctor you can be. That’s the way we’ve built HMG.”
Miller’s foundations were laid as a child growing up in Swords Creek, Va. Faced with the option of joining the family coal mining business, he decided to become a medical doctor.
After high school, he attended the University of Richmond on a scholarship followed by medical school, whereupon he became the youngest doctor in Virginia in 1965, graduating at the top of his class.
Miller began his practice in Nickelsville, Va., and later moved to Kingsport, starting Holston Medical Group in 1977, which became the region’s first multi-specialty physicians group.
Under Miller’s leadership, HMG has set milestones for patient care. In 1985, the practice became the region’s first non-emergency room provider of after-hours care. In 1996, it established the first clinical research department within a physicians group. And in 1999, it opened the region’s first freestanding diagnostic imaging facility.
Having become the region’s first fully integrated user of electronic medical records, HMG took the concept one step further by launching OnePartner in 2006, which then created the ATAC, America’s first commercial tier III certified data storage facility.
HMG’s most visible sign of ongoing success is Kingsport’s HMG Medical Plaza, a six-story environmentally friendly facility designed with an eye to the future.
Keith Wilson
Keith Wilson, publisher of the Kingsport Times-News, attended Indiana University majoring in political science. He became the general manager of the IU student newspaper, later working for several newspapers in Indiana and Kentucky.
In 1986, he arrived in Kingsport as advertising director for the Kingsport Times-News, and was named publisher in 1993.
After becoming publisher, Wilson focused on community and creating a stronger market for his own business. His first project led him down the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail, leading to the formation of the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association. Wilson’s interest in the trail led him and his wife to purchase a small farm along the Clinch River, which has the world’s largest living legacy of fresh water mussels.
From a survey, Wilson was told, “some of these mussels are probably extinct, but just don’t know it yet.”
“I thought, ‘This reminds me of Kingsport. We don’t have any young people. They’re all leaving — going away to college and never returning. There’s no opportunity for higher education in Kingsport’,” Wilson said.
Around the same time, then-Mayor Jeanette Blazier convened an economic summit, and community leaders gathered together to identify priorities for the city. Education was placed at the top of the agenda, and Wilson and Blazier helped launched the Regional Center for Applied Technology in downtown Kingsport.
That idea has grown in recent years, and today, Kingsport is home to the Regional Center for Health Professionals, the Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing, and the Kingsport Center for Higher Education, along with the Regional Center for Applied Technology, which includes a wing named for Wilson and Blazier.
Junior Achievement was founded nationally in 1919 and locally in 1966 to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives. To learn about Junior Achievement or to become a JA classroom volunteer, call (423) 392-8841.
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