Local optometry practice has new owners

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A three-generation local business is now under new ownership.

Optometrists Joshua Werling and Chad Otte recently purchased the Van Wert practice of Dr. Dennis Miller, doing business as Miller Vision Center. The new entity will operate under the name Van Wert Family Eye Care.

The new owners are Mercer County natives.

Dr. Werling is a 2007 graduate of St. Henry High School and Ohio Dominican University, where he played football for the Panthers before earning his doctorate in optometry cum laude from The Ohio State University in 2014.

He currently resides in St. Henry with his wife, Kelly.

Dr. Otte is a 2003 graduate of Marion Local High School and attended Wilmington College, where he played football for the Quakers and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 2007. He also earned his optometry degree cum laude from Ohio State in 2011.

He resides in Celina with his wife, Beth, daughter Lucy and son Beau.

Drs. Otte and Werling also own a practice in Celina called Mercer In-Sight.

“We are super excited about this opportunity and look forward to continuing to build Dr. Miller’s practice,” said Dr. Werling.

Both Dr. Otte and Dr. Werling had been working for Dr. Miller prior to purchasing the practice.

Dr. Miller, who took over the practice, established by his grandfather, from his father, Dr. Ken Miller, has been operating it since 1978, with a specialization in contact lenses.

Dr. Miller, a 1969 graduate of Van Wert High School, earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Ohio State University in 1973, and a bachelor’s degree in visual science and his optometry degree from Illinois College of Optometry in 1978. He also obtained a therapeutic license in 1992 after 30 hours of post-graduate training at Ohio State.

Dr. Miller will remain on staff and will continue to see patients in the near future.

Miller Vision Center will now operate under the name of Van Wert Family Eye Care and is currently accepting new patients. Call 419.238.5503.