David W. Miller was born on July 9, 1940, in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, to Arthur and Kathryn Miller. After graduating high school, Miller went drastically out of state, attending Rice University in Houston, Texas. His time spent at Rice earned him a Bachelor of Arts in History. For graduate school, Miller headed north and landed at the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he earned his Masters degree in 1963.

After this latest professional success, Miller took a leap in his personal life. A year after getting his Masters, he married Margaret Richardson on August 22, 1964. Later, the two had a daughter named Roberta. As his personal life changed, so did the scenery around Miller. In 1967, he became an instructor at Carnegie-Mellon University while pursuing his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. In 1968, he earned his Ph.D. and was promoted to Assistant Professor at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Miller's first publication, Church, State and Nation in Ireland, 1898-1921 (1973) closely preceded his promotion to the position of Associate Professor of History. This study of the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the British regime in Ireland before its independence was viewed favorably by his peers. Edward P. Brynn wrote of this history that "Miller's subject has of course been treated before but never so thoroughly and single-mindedly, rarely so dispassionately, and because of a strong emphasis on the church-nation-state thesis, with such discipline." J.C. Beckett wrote in the English Historical Review that Miller's book was "original in conception and scholarly in execution."

Around that same time, Miller became the director of undergraduate studies in history. His 1978 book, Queen's Rebels: Ulster Loyalism in Historical Perspective, treated background of the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland (the historical province of Ulster). As with his first book, Queen's Rebels won the respect of his fellow historians. Alfred F. Havighurst wrote in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science that Miller's "thoughtful analysis will fully repay careful examination." Donald H. Akenson maintained in the American Historical Review that the book was "a remarkably stimulating essay upon loyalism in Ireland" and that Irish historians "can scarcely fail to think afresh about what they thought they already knew."

Since 2001, Miller has become a full Professor at Carnegie-Mellon as well as the coordinator of Carnegie-Mellon's religious studies minor. He has continued to publish scholarly articles in the journals of his field and has edited two collections of essays.

David Miller currently resides at his home in Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and continues to teach, research, and publish at Carnegie-Mellon University.