I doubt I became an overall better person (I just degenerate with age), but in a more specific way, I think reading Tolkien helped me become a better writer.
I've had the chance to closely examine what it is I like about his works, like the capacity for wonder, for example. I think it got through to my head that "serious" writing could involve talking eagles and immortal hot people who liked to sing and dance, i.e. it can be anything you want it to be, provided you don't suck.
I've also digested and analyzed what I didn't like, such as the conversations between Frodo and Sam, for example, that often seemed to jar in my head. It didn't seem sincere to me at the time, maybe because of my politics, maybe because they just stuck out at me like little islands of overwrought text that didn't seem to fit with Tolkien's effortless descriptions of the scenery and so on. Anyhow, I decided to re-examine conversation and the way it can break the flow of prose, and so on, and so forth.
Plus, the books simply reminded me of how much I'm in love with reading, and hopefully always will be.