From the Pews: Larry Miller

By Dale Buchanan

It is Wednesday afternoon when I ring Gayle’s doorbell. She invites me in and we chitchat. I asked “Why did you choose me to interview?”  “We were facing a deadline and just picked your name out of the directory.” Gayle chided Dale, and I laughed. This set the tone for our pleasant hour of discovery.

Born in Rochester, New York, it was home until I graduated high school. In the spring, summer, and fall, it is glorious, but sandwiched between fall and spring is winter—four or five months of gray, snowbound months—but then there was skiing!

I grew up in a “Father Knows Best” family with two parents and two siblings. Born in the baby boomer era, I recall kindergarten with snacks and naps on the floor. We lived in a nice house in a residential neighborhood that sprang up overnight creating suburbs from ancient woodlands. People were having children and there were kids everywhere. I had my own cohort of boys. The streets were our playground which we surrendered grudgingly to the occasional car. Less than a mile from our house was a virgin forest. Imagine our shock when huge earth movers started knocking down those trees and constructing an interstate.

My mother allowed me the freedom to grow and explore. She baked cookies and provided a loving atmosphere, but I remember best the freedom to walk with my buds to the forest to climb trees. I could go to the soda shop or the bowling alley on my own. 

Not a touchy, feely man, dad never said I love you   However he built us swings and made me a pitching target for Little League. Though not demonstrable, he nevertheless demonstrated his love clearly.

We were three children. I came first and was named Larry. Laurie arrived as number two and finally my brother Lee was born. Mom and dad ran out of names beginning with “L” and stopped having children.

I was a B+ student and a member of the swim team. At 5:30 every morning I walked a mile in the dark to get the newspapers and then deliver them. I guess I was an average kid. When I was seven or eight, I went to the YMCA every Saturday morning where we did crafts, played games, and swam. Here I developed my character and enjoyed the camaraderie of other kids from all over the city. In my teen years I was a member of the YMCA Leaders Club and worked with the younger kids.

In high school I decided that I would be a marine biologist and upon graduation enrolled in Sunny Brooks State University. I quickly discovered that marine biology was a graduate program and required rigorous undergraduate classes and that beat me up academically. Because I had met my future wife, I decided to stay at Sunny Brook and changed my major to Earth Sciences. I took a class in animal behavior and found the professor’s research with homing pigeons fascinating. For two summers instead of flipping burgers I went with this professor to Boston where there were pigeon lofts and got paid to assist in his research. 

I graduated with a B.S. in Geology and asked myself, “What am I going to do with this?”   Because my interest was piqued in pigeons, I applied to a Master’s program in zoology at the University of Wisconsin. When I graduated with my master’s degree in zoology, again I was faced with a decision, what now?

This question led me to Louisiana State University where three and a half years later I walked out with a PhD in zoology. Confronted again with the “what now” question, the answer was go to work. After twenty years teaching at a small catholic college in Erie, Pennsylvania, I was not getting rich, but I did have tenure. Now in my middle forties both professionally and personally my life was not cheery. A divorce was looming on the horizon. For some insane reason, I determined to make a break. I wanted to make a difference with my life. There was a medical school in Erie. It was back to school. I had underestimated the work load and had to relearn how to study. I managed to change from teacher to student and in due time graduated. Then I began to apply for residency. I was accepted in a hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, working toward becoming and Emergency Room doctor.

While in my residency in Ohio, I met a woman on E-Harmony who lived in Turlock, California. One thing led to another and I found and was accepted into a family practice residency program in Salinas. This seemed a perfect fit. We took turns meeting between Turlock and Salinas, but as fate would have it within a month she dumped me.

Strange and seemingly convoluted paths lead us to happiness. Through one of my fellow students in Salinas I met and married Patti, the love of my life. I travelled from Rochester, New York, to Salinas, California to find the profession that allows me to make a difference. I practiced family medicine at the Indian Health Services in Prather for five years and now go for short stints to clinics in need of a doctor. 

I am a biologist at heart and delight in serving as a docent at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Dale teased me that I sounded like a dyed in the wool tree hugger. Being a devoted environmentalist and recalling my roots in the pristine woods of my youth, I proudly lay claim to “Tree Hugger.”

And I proudly claim to being Doctor Doctor Larry Miller, PhD, MD.