Dr. George Henry Miller, who delivered more than 5,000 babies during his lengthy career, dies

Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun
·4 min read
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Dr. George Henry Miller, who delivered more than 5,000 babies during his lengthy medical career, died of dementia complications Jan. 27 at Stella Maris in Timonium. The Overlea resident was 95.

Born in Baltimore and raised on Pelham Avenue, he was the son of George Edward “Gus” Miller, a Department of Recreation and Parks worker, and Stasia Jankiewicz, a homemaker.

He attended Shrine of the Little Flower School and won a scholarship to Mount Saint Joseph High School. He then earned a bachelor of science at the University of Maryland College Park before immediately going on to get a degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

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“My father grew up during the Great Depression and he started work at an early age to help support his family,” said his son George P. Miller. “He worked after school and Saturdays at a corner grocery in the neighborhood and began a lifelong love of coffee by chewing on roasted coffee beans.

“He later got a summer job as a grounds crew worker maintaining the Clifton Park golf course,” his son said. “This began another lifelong love affair with the game of golf.”

While a medical student, he married a childhood friend, JoAnne Restivo, who had grown up three blocks away.

After completing his internship and residency at Mercy Medical Center, Dr. Miller served in the Air Force from 1957 through 1959 at the old Chanute Air Force Base in Champaign County, Illinois. He was chief of obstetrics for the base hospital.

After leaving the military, Dr. Miller set up a private practice in obstetrics and gynecology in Mount Vernon on Calvert Street. He later had offices in Linthicum and on Belair Road in Northeast Baltimore.

He had privileges at several Baltimore hospitals but eventually concentrated his time between Mercy Medical Center and the University of Maryland St. Joseph Hospital.

“He had a seven-day workweek because he could never tell when his patient was going to go into labor,” his son said. “His work brought him the great joy of bringing literally thousands of new lives into the world. He checked his records and estimated he had delivered between 5,000 and 6,000 babies.”

He retired at age 65.

Dr. Miller continued to offer his services at the Stella Maris and Baltimore County free health clinics.

In 1994, he joined Mission of Mercy, a mobile outreach health and dental service for patients in Maryland and southern Pennsylvania.

“George was like a jolly old Santa Claus,” said Dr. Michael T. Sullivan, Mission of Mercy’s chief medical director. “I have a sense of him doing his medical chores accompanied by his spirituality.

“George had just retired and he did not want to sit around. He found a new outlet to keep his hand in medicine and he liked meeting people who were similarly motivated in the field of medical practice and he liked meeting patients with medical obstacles.”

Dr. Miller was an active Roman Catholic and a longtime member of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Overlea. He became a pastoral and Eucharistic minister and brought Holy Communion to patients in many of the hospitals where he had been on the medical staff.

He and his wife vacationed in the Belgrade Lakes section of Maine in the summer.

“In 1983 he bought a home at North Myrtle Beach because there were more than 60 golf courses in the area,” his son Francis M. “Frank” Miller said. “He was a longtime member of Hillendale Country Club and had three holes-in-one.

“My father and I played together on Sunday mornings for 36 years. My father had a great bedside manner with his patients, but his emotions came out on the golf course. It was him against the little white golf ball.”

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 10 at St. Michael the Archangel Church at 10 Willow Ave. in Overlea.

Survivors include his wife of 71 years, JoAnne M. Restivo Miller, who assisted in his office; three sons, George P. Miller, of Baltimore, Francis M. “Frank” Miller, of Timonium, and Robert J. Miller, of Perry Hall; a daughter, Mary Danetta Blanchard, of Fairfield, Pennsylvania; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.