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Legacy of a Lion: Dr. Ann Marie Miller Whitlach '74
Dr. Ann Marie (Miller) Whitlatch ’74 has lived a life rooted in family, friendship, Catholicism, and a love of learning, thanks to the empowerment she felt as an MSJ student creating her path in critical care nursing, gerontology, and ethics.
Whitlatch grew up in Newark, Ohio, as one of 12 kids. Her mother, Dorothy Miller, was a graduate of Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. While at Saint Mary’s, Miller had to have surgery, causing her to miss a semester. During WWII, the Mount allowed students to make up a missed semester in one summer. So this is what Miller did. Whitlatch says her mother had a wonderful experience at the Mount.
From a young age, Whitlatch was taught that much of life’s richness stems from a strong bond rooted in love with family and friends, and she has witnessed her mother’s teachings ripple down through generations.
“When I look at my parents’ legacy of 31 grandchildren, there is nothing they would love better than to know that their grandchildren are such good friends,” she says.
Having grown up hearing wonderful things about the Mount from her mother, along with godmother and aunt, Sr. Ann Middendorf, OSB ’49, Whitlatch scheduled a visit. Everyone was so kind. She loved the smallness of the campus and the largeness and liveliness of Cincinnati. It fit.
Whitlatch enrolled as a biology and chemistry major. She quickly met Diane (Lyons) McCrone ’74, who was studying nursing. They became fast friends and roomed together.
“I love sciences, and I was determined to be a science major, but Diane just kept talking about her love of nursing,” Whitlatch says.
Whitlatch didn’t want to switch majors. Intrigued, she simply added on nursing. Clinical practice often coincided with lab work, but her professors were encouraging, often teaching labs after hours one-on-one.
“That’s how generous they were,” Whitlatch says. “I mean, that’s way beyond.”
Whitlatch was also struck by the brilliance of one particular professor, Paula Gonzalez, SC ’52 “very short but mighty,” she says, and ahead of her time, talking about the ethics of scientific developments and the importance of environmental stewardship.
“She was this tiny 5’0” nun with a heart of gold who was a giant in my mind,” Whitlatch says.
Whitlatch enjoyed fencing and had leadership roles in student government, a benefit of attending an all-female school in the ’70s.
“I felt like we were encouraged to be leaders in an era when other women weren’t,” she says. “Now it’s not as important because my granddaughter wouldn’t even know not to be a leader. She’s never had that prejudice. But at the Mount, we were really taught that we could be anything and that we should rise to the top to be leaders.”
This through-line in Whitlatch’s life has given her the confidence to step into many leadership positions.
After graduation, Whitlatch and McCrone remained roommates in Cincinnati. Nursing at Christ Hospital fulfilled Whitlatch’s scientific love of research and drew on the compassion she inherited from her mother. Her MSJ education gave her an edge as she was challenged in her new role.
McCrone got engaged, and Whitlatch took a job as a critical care nurse at St. Anthony’s Hospital (now Ohio State University Hospital East) in Columbus, Ohio. She met and married Tom, and they had two sons, Brian and Sean. In 1980 she earned a master’s degree in nursing at The Ohio State University (OSU)—in 1993, she earned a Ph.D. in gerontology and a minor in ethics at OSU as well. She taught critical care nursing at the Mount Carmel College of Nursing for five years. Then, she became a tenured professor at Ohio Wesleyan University, teaching critical care, ethics and senior management for 15 years.
“I really loved it there,” Whitlatch says. “I thought I’d found my career home.”
In the 1990s, more opportunities opened up for women, but nursing enrollment was down. Her program abruptly closed.
“It was really traumatic for me,” Whitlatch says. “I thought my career was thriving and I had made so many good friends and associates.”
She expanded her wings as the executive vice president of the Ohio Nurses Association’s for-profit division. Then, an ideal position opened up at OSU: teaching undergraduate gerontology, a topic she first became passionate about while working as a critical care nurse.
“We were putting all these older people with all these chronic illnesses into these intensive care units and not even thinking, just because we can do it, should we do it,” she says. “The more we know in medicine, the more questions we have, ethically.”
After teaching graduate-level leadership, management and ethics at OSU, she retired from teaching fulltime in 2015. She limited her work to one online class a semester for four more years, sometimes grading papers poolside in Florida, where she and her husband still winter.
These days, Whitlatch volunteers at her parish church and a parish school as a Eucharistic Minister and Lector. She mentors nurses in gerontology and critical care through the Ohio Nursing Association and shares her expertise in Alzheimer’s care with local support groups. She also gives communion and serves as a companion to residents at the same skilled nursing center where she used to take her OSU students for advanced assessment.
“I wanted to give back to them,” she says. “They were always so good about letting me bring students there.”
Living close to her siblings and sons, she is grateful to worship weekly with family. Her entire family loves golf and she enjoys watching her four grandkids play sports. And now, a longtime friend is family. After vacationing and sharing many holidays together, Whitlatch’s son, Brian, married McCrone’s daughter, Katie. These two MSJ roommates now share two grandchildren.
Whitlatch credits her mother and the Mount for underscoring the importance of family, friendship, Catholicism and a love of learning.
“That is the culture of Mount St. Joe still today,” she says.
In May, Whitlatch celebrated her 50th reunion at the Mount, where she received the Sister Loretta Richards, SC Award, the highest award given to an alumna.
