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Catching up with Terry Miller '77

By Professor Dennis Turner

Admittedly, when the Queen gave the royal wave from her gilded carriage it may not have been meant precisely for the Turners, but we were part of the crowd watching the Queen on her way to open Parliament. After the parade, we met Terry at the Restaurant Inn the Park which is nestled on the shore of the lake in Saint James Park, just east of Buckingham Palace. In light of the recent British election and all the speculation about Great Britain leaving the European Union, there was much to talk about.

Prof. Dennis Turner and Terry Miller '79Terry has not slowed down after her stint as general counsel for the London Organizing Committee of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In 2013, she received more than a passing wave from the Queen when the Queen made her an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of her work on the London Olympics. Terry’s expertise has been in great demand since. 

In December 2013, along with a number of her colleagues from the London 2012 Organising Committee, she was asked to serve on the organizing committee of the inaugural Invictus Games, which took place in London in September 2014.

These first-ever Invictus Games were established as an initiative of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense, creating an international sporting event for wounded, injured and disabled servicemen and women. The Invictus Games have been personally championed by Prince Harry and were inspired by his attendance at the U.S. Warrior Games in 2012 and 2013. In the U.S. Warrior Games, five teams of wounded, ill and injured service member and veterans from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy/Coast Guard, Air Force and Special Operations compete in seven sports. The Invictus Games takes this concept to another level; the London Games brought together more than 300 competitors in teams from 14 nations competing in nine sports over four days. Future Invictus Games will be hosted by other nations, guided by the rules set by the Invictus Games Foundation, a newly registered charity which Terry serves as a trustee.  Prince Harry with Invictus competitors (from invictusgames.org)

But wait, there is more. Terry is also a Non-Executive Director of the British Olympic Association (BOA) chaired by Lord Sebastian Coe. Her Royal Highness Princess Anne is the President of the BOA. The BOA describes its role as:

“… to prepare and lead our nation’s finest athletes at the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games. Working with the National Governing Bodies, the BOA selects Team GB from the best sportsmen and women who will go on to compete in the 28 summer and 7 winter Olympic sports at the greatest sporting competition in the world.”

Terry told us that she preferred the British method for selecting who will represent Great Britain in the 2016 Olympics. In Britain, athletes are chosen based on their performances in a number of qualifying events over an extended period of time. In the U.S. an athlete qualifies for the U.S. team based on his or her performance at the Olympic Trials. A runner, for example, might hold the world record for the 100 meter dash, but if the athlete happens to have a bad day during the trials, they will not make the U.S. Team. 

Terry and her husband, Jonathan, will be spending less time in England in the future, and more time at their home in southern France. Jonathan has become a French politician, having been elected to their local town council last year, and is finishing up a book about France that is due to be published in the autumn. The horse farm they own in West Sussex will be sold. The quiet life of the beautiful French countryside is seductive, but Terry will remain active supporting those causes she believes in. She possesses so much talent and has a treasure trove of experience that it will not be long before some large organization will be knocking on her door asking for her assistance.


For questions on this post, please contact Professor Dennis Turner

For more information, or to submit a news item, contact Denise Baker, assistant director of communications at the University of Dayton School of Law, at lawcomm@udayton.edu. Or submit your news online here.

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