James Quinter Miller, MD (1926–2005)

Abstract

James Q. Miller died of cancer on May 15, 2005. His career as a physician, which he regarded as an extraordinary privilege, spanned more than 50 years. His enthusiasm for being a neurologist, neuropathologist, and teacher was evident in the wonder and enjoyment that he conveyed to his colleagues and generations of students. Jim was born in Ohio in 1926 and spent his childhood in various places. However, from early childhood, he spent summers on the farm in the Shenandoah Valley—home to many generations of Millers. This experience imprinted upon him a love of the rivers, valleys, and mountains of Virginia. After attending Haverford College, he attended medical school at Columbia, where he met and married Alice Marie March, a physical therapist. She was the great partner of his life and mother of their four children. Jim was one of the first neurology trainees at the University of Virginia. Additional training in neuropathology, child neurology, and genetics at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital engendered lasting interest in the nature and inheritance of developmental abnormalities of the brain. Among the first of his nearly 50 papers was his classic …