AKC Canine Health Foundation Receives $1 Million Gift from the Estate of Cora N. Miller to Further Canine Health Research

The AKC Canine Health Foundation (CHF), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to prevent, treat, and cure diseases in all dogs, is honored to announce a one million dollar donation from the estate of Cora Nunnally Miller to CHF’s endowment fund.

Cora N. Miller was a philanthropist, and enthusiastic competitor and breeder of Whippets. She was a founding member and director of the Whippet Health Foundation, and served on the Board of Directors and as President of the American Whippet Club; an honorary lifetime membership was bestowed upon her at the Boston National in 2006. The Foundation’s receipt of this generous donation is timely as the 2016 American Whippet Club National Specialty begins this week in San Diego. 

“Cora was dedicated to the total Whippet. It was never enough for her dogs to have beauty and type. Her goal as a breeder was to produce beautiful, athletic, and healthy Whippets, and she succeeded,” said longtime friend and professional handler Phoebe Booth. To further that goal Cora Miller was an annual major donor to the AKC Canine Health Foundation, and she also supported the Whippet Health Foundation.

“We are grateful to the estate of Cora Nunnally Miller for the generous bequest to CHF. This donation carries on Cora’s lifelong commitment to the health and well-being of dogs, and ensures that future generations will benefit from the canine health research funded by the Foundation,” said Dr. Charles Garvin, chairman of the CHF board.

“As an artist, Cora Miller saw the light and spirit in every dog. To her, a beautiful dog was a healthy dog. In gifting the AKC Health Foundation, she was placing her generosity where her heart already was, in the furtherance of the cause of good health for all dogs,” said Cora’s longtime friend, AKC judge and fellow Whippet breeder Sharon Sakson. “She believed in breeding healthy dogs and her gift to the AKC Canine Health Foundation is another way Cora has shared her own deep love of dogs with the world.”