He was named after two bishops, William Henry Miles and Richard H. Vandahurst, of the Christian Methodist Episcopal church in Jackson, Tennessee.

In 1890 he and his wife, Beebe Steven Lynk, established the University of West Tennessee graduating at least 155 physicians as well as a number of pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and, through its law school, attorneys during its twenty-three years of existence.

The Medical and Surgical Observer was stamped and labeled by the Library of the Surgeon General's Office in Washington, D.C., as the "Only Negro M.J. in America."

Since the journal existed during a time of racial segregation, its readers found this was another way to find information in order to compete with white medical practitioners.

[1][6][7] Lynk also published several books on African-American history, including The Black Troopers, or the Daring Heroism of the Negro Soldiers in the Spanish–American War.