Donald W. Miller

DONALD W. MILLER, M.D. January 1, 1915 - February 25, 2012 The Palm Beaches lost one of their best and most devoted servants when Don Miller passed away Saturday after 97 years of healing, generosity, and love. For 25 years, Don was a thoracic surgeon in the Palm Beach Medical Group, and it is no exaggeration to say that he saved hundreds of lives with his skill, compassion, and care. He was also an Elder of Lakeside Presbyterian Church, a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International, and a loving family man. For 73 years, he and his wife, Charlotte, shared one of the great love affairs of our times, and he was a superb father to his four children, ten grandchildren, and eight great-grand- children. He was raised an only child in Cambridge, NE, but he was far from spoiled. He plowed the fields of the family farm by walking behind a team of oxen and guiding them by hand, and he rode a horse to school six miles each way. He played the saxophone in a dance band to pay his way through medical school, and when he graduated in 1938, he joined the Navy to pay for his residency. Only a few weeks later, at a Naval Ball in San Diego, he met a young woman who had traveled west from North Carolina to visit family. He was instantly smitten, and they were married five months later. Their first child, Don, Jr., was born in 1940, and their second child, Mary, arrived in 1943, after Don had begun a stretch of 21 straight months at sea, at war in the Pacific, as one of only two physicians on the USS Minneapolis. Mary was 18 months old before she met her father. A third child, Nancy, arrived in 1946, and a fourth, Rody, arguably the cutest of them all, was born in 1951. Don finished his naval career as Chief of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. When he began his private practice in West Palm Beach in 1960, he became one of the area's hardest-working and most trusted physicians. He was named a Diplomate of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and was for years the Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital. He also supported the arts, encouraging Charlotte as she became a star soprano with Palm Beach Opera. When Don retired, he and Charlotte became expert ballroom dancers who were famous for being the first on the dance floor when the music started. He joined another dance band, and basked in the love of his family, which he richly and truly deserved. He is survived by Charlotte, his two sons, and all of his grand- and great- grandchildren. They will cherish his memory, strive to live by his example, and miss him terribly. Friends are invited to a funeral service at Lakeside Presbyterian Church, 4601 S. Flagler Dr., at 11:00 AM Tuesday, February 28. Burial will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery. .