George Thomas Milliken

Eastham -- George Thomas Milliken, commercial diver, boat captain, commercial fisherman, merchant seaman, former owner of the fishing vessels “Comanche” and “Ciona” of Rock Harbor, Orleans, and a damn good human being , died Wednesday, Jan 13, surrounded by his loving family. He was 57.

George battled glioblastoma brain cancer for nearly three years while participating in the Duke University Tisch Brain Tumor Center’s experimental research. He felt good about giving service to others with the hope of finding a cure.

In addition to his participation in cancer research, George helped countless people recover from alcoholism and addictions over the past 30 years, and offered shelter to many people as they worked their way back to sobriety.

He loved to joke and make people laugh. He lived in Eastham and Wilmington, NC.

Born and raised to a seafaring family in Eastham, he was a man of the sea. George was, among many other things, a trained boat builder and merchant seaman (AB). He held a master‘s license for vessels up to 1500 tons. He also worked as a mason, blacksmith, and several other skilled trades.

George was a free spirit who lived an adventurous life. As a kid, he built rafts, and later sailboats and speedboats to ply the waters of Town Cove. As a teenager he crewed on the family owned Dolphin Fleet boats. During his younger, wilder years, he fished New England and Alaskan waters and lived and surfed in Hawaii until he returned to New England. There, he delivered boats of all kinds up and down the East Coast, ran tugboats along the Hudson, worked as a blue water merchant mariner, and captained many local fishing boats before shifting to commercial diving . He told tales of sailing by starlight from Cape Cod to South America on merchant ships, and of commercial diving, working as a saturation diver for days on end, saying that “it was the closest thing to being an astronaut that I could do”.

Most recently George spent winters in Wilmington, NC, where he worked endlessly and skillfully, waking at the break of dawn daily to renovate his antique house, which he hoped would eventually be a haven for friends and family. Summers, he worked out of Provincetown as a captain for the Dolphin Fleet of Cape Cod.

George was a doer, not a watcher, and always seemed to have a million projects going on. He was, however, never too busy to take time to talk to a friend or someone in need.

From early on, George particularly enjoyed riding his motorcycle along with the buddies he cherished, wherever the road would take them.

The light of his life was his son Eben Morgan, and would constantly bore anyone who would listen about what a good, kind, talented, and intelligent kid he was. He often reminisced about their times together and the cross country trip that they had taken in the RV that he had purchased for their adventure .

George was a graduate of Cape Cod Tech Marine Program, and The Coastal School of Deep Sea Diving in Oakland CA

He is survived by his siblings, John Milliken, Sydney Milliken, Steve Milliken, Matthew Milliken, and Catherine Avellar Polselli, all of Eastham; nieces and nephews Alexandra Davis, Paul Milliken, Stephen Milliken, Caira Milliken, Chad Avellar and Anson Avellar, and many cousins; his pitbull, Tyson: as well as more friends than most people have in one lifetime. His father, Edmund Milliken, mother, Constance Dill Avellar, stepfather, Albert J. Avellar and step-brother Aaron Avellar, predeceased him.

An open service will be held at The United Eastham Methodist church at 3200 state highway, Eastham, on Tuesday, Jan 19th at 10:30 am

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to The Tisch Brain Tumor Center c/o Ellen Stainback PO Box 3624, Durham, NC 27710