It’s Derek Miller. My dad, Jeff Miller, died on May 7, 2021. It was a total shock. Even though he had been hospitalized for over two months, all indications were that he was recovering steadily. Just the day before, he had been deemed stable enough to be transferred out of a step-down hospital and into a rehab facility. We really thought the worst was behind us.

With that in mind, I apologize for the delay in reporting the bad news. It’s been difficult to sit down and write about his passing. But you, his faithful readers, deserve to know how much you meant to him.

I feel like this cliché gets thrown around a lot, but I can only describe my dad’s writing as a labor of love. For about as long as I can remember, he dedicated almost every Saturday to drafting the latest installment in his Weighing the Week Ahead series. Often, he wouldn’t be happy with what he’d written until two or three in the morning.

Jeff undertook that great effort because he keenly appreciated that so many of you valued and relied on his insight—of which, I would argue, he offered more than “a dash.” Perhaps his favorite part of this process was engaging with the thoughtful comments many of you would leave each week (he even had some fun dismissing the not-so-thoughtful comments).

Moreover, Jeff cherished the relationships he formed as his readership grew. That much is as true for readers who became clients, as it is for peers who became his regular sources, as it is for those featured in his “Best of the Week” section.

In a media landscape riddled with ill-informed punditry, fearmongering, and misinformation, Jeff was one of a few level-headed and reasonable voices—and he knew it. We are all worse off to have lost him.

Because there is so much to be gained from his work on this site, I intend to keep it up and running for as long as possible.