Louise Hope Pitt Miller

MILLER, Louise Hope Pitt, who passed away on March 26, 2009, after a fierce, 15-year battle with cancer, was known as Boomba to her family, Richmond friends, and hundreds of campers and counselors from Camp Alleghany and Camp Virginia. Born on March 30, 1950, the oldest daughter of Malcolm "Buck" and Betty Pitt of Richmond, she graduated from Collegiate School in 1968. She attended the University of Tennessee before joining the first class of undergraduate women at UVA, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and earned a B.A. and M.A. in English and English education, respectively. She taught English in Albemarle County before moving to England to teach at TASIS England for five years. Returning to the U.S. in 1987, she taught English and photography at Gilman School in Baltimore and at St. Anne's-Belfield School in Charlottesville. For the last 19 summers, she worked at Camp Virginia, her family's boys' camp, in Rockbridge County, the last several years as director. Having retired from teaching in 2002, she did camp work year round, as well as volunteering at George Mason Elementary School, Collegiate School, and First Presbyterian Church. As a teacher, she combined high standards with ingenious pedagogy and confidence-building affection for her students. At Camp Virginia, she compiled bus lists because she had to and comforted nervous and homesick youngsters because she loved to. Her generosity and kindness are illustrated in the thousands upon thousands of photographs that she snapped and delivered to campers, counselors, student athletes, friends, and family. She is survived by her husband, Kenneth Cameron Miller III; her mother, Betty C. Pitt; sister and brother-in-law, Betty Pitt Cimmino and Christian Peter Cimmino of Virginia Beach, sister and brother-in-law, Anne Pitt Rogers and Nigel William Rogers of Staffordshire, England; and her nephew, Christian Peter Cimmino Jr. Her father, Malcolm U. Pitt Jr., died in November 2008. A memorial service will be held on Monday, March 30, at 10 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 4602 Cary Street Road, Richmond, Va. 23226. In lieu of flowers, we ask for donations to Collegiate School and to First Presbyterian Church, designated for the tutoring program at George Mason Elementary School.
This obituary was originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.