Kathy and Fred Miller on a Princeton Journeys trip to Bhutan in 2024, front row, second and third from left (Kathy is in the yellow jacket).
“I didn’t know what I was going to be doing after I retired from Morgan Stanley,” remembers Fred Miller ’73. One unique opportunity seized the English major’s imagination: Princeton Journeys was offering a trip in 2007 to “Chaucer’s Canterbury” led by John Fleming *63, the Louis W. Fairchild ’24 Professor of English and Comparative Literature emeritus, who was renowned for his undergraduate course on the 14th-century author. Miller, who has a master’s degree in English literature from Oxford University, had never been a student of Fleming’s, but knew his scholarship (and sense of humor) would make any pilgrimage he led a journey well worth taking — no matter where it led.
While Miller’s wife, Kathy Hill-Miller, then an English professor at Long Island University’s Post campus and dean of its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was unable to join him due to work commitments, that trip inspired them with a passion to learn more about the world.
The couple, both now retired, have embarked on seven Princeton Journeys together, starting with a cruise in Croatia, and followed by adventures in the Galapagos, Egypt, the Riviera, southern Africa, Bhutan, and the Mekong River in Vietnam and Cambodia. Next spring, they plan to join members of the Great Class of 1973 on a Princeton Journey to Northern Italy.
One of the main reasons they return to Princeton Journeys for their travels is intellectual engagement with the study leaders: faculty or alumni selected for their expertise in the subject matter of the trip. Study leaders’ lectures, they say, often lead to unexpected revelations. On their summer 2024 trip, “Africa’s Wildlife: South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Victoria Falls,” Andrew Gersick, lecturer in ecology and evolutionary biology, “got us thinking about evolution as well as the history of science,” Miller said.
The tour groups are small, and relationships with study leaders and fellow travelers can continue long past goodbye hugs. “The tour leaders say, ‘Let’s all stay in contact,’” Hill-Miller said, noting that they’d recently received an email from Sophal Ear *97, associate professor at Arizona State University, who was the study leader for a trip in winter 2025, “Cruising the Mekong River: Vietnam and Cambodia.” The couple is also on the newsletter mailing list of Daniel Kurtzer, former ambassador to Egypt and the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies, who served as study leader for their winter 2023 trip, “Ancient Egypt and the Nile River.”
The couple has also been impressed by the excellence of the local guides hired for Princeton Journeys. “That has really been the case on every trip,” said Hill-Miller. For example, in winter 2022, on the “Wild Galapagos Escape,” local guides helped the group understand how the Ecuadorian government works to protect the islands’ delicate ecosystem. Those same guides were also quick to modify plans as opportunities arose — when a volcano erupted on an outer island, the captain steered their boat toward it so the voyagers could take in the rare sight.
Meeting different people and understanding their cultures is what travel is all about, and for the Millers, the Princeton Journeys experience has offered personal connections that speak to their hearts. Visiting schools in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and Mfuwe, Zambia, made a lasting impression. The energy and successes of these schools, despite extreme poverty, inspired them to find ways to help, said Hill-Miller, “and that is a really extraordinary and a wonderful thing to be able to do.”
Traveling with fellow Tigers can lead to moments of serendipity — as it did in autumn of 2024 on an excursion to Tiger’s Nest monastery in Bhutan, which sits high on the side of a cliff. “It’s a holy pilgrimage for many Buddhists, and it’s quite some climb,” Hill-Miller said. “Many of us rode ponies up to the teahouse that was halfway up the mountain. Then everybody began to walk up to the Tiger’s Nest. Fred is much faster than I am, so I almost didn’t go at all. But then I noticed two fellow travelers who were starting out slowly. I already knew them from one of our earlier Princeton Journeys, so I joined them. We enjoyed the panoramic vistas at every bend in the path. We crossed a gorge by going up and down about 500 steps. Their companionship made the hike unforgettable.”
For the Millers, Princeton Journeys has the ticket to unforgettable adventures and opportunities for education and understanding. The initial Chaucer trip foreshadowed the couple’s future travels — and more. John Fleming’s wife, Joan, an Episcopal priest, had engaged Fred Miller in conversation on that trip as he’d mused about what retirement might bring. He’d recently audited a theology class and enjoyed it greatly. Joan made a prediction for Miller’s retirement, and while she didn’t share it at the time, it came true six years later when he, too, was ordained as an Episcopal priest. Joan perhaps recognized something true for both Millers in their shared enthusiasm for Princeton Journeys: “The joy of learning,” Fred Miller said, “can lead you on pilgramages you just don’t expect.”
