Charles Miller II's Obituary
Charles Miller Federal Health Official
Charles Miller II, 90, who served 33 years in the Federal Government Service in the Department of Health Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services, HHS) died April 21 in Lewes, Delaware.
Mr. Miller served as an HHS deputy Assistant Secretary under two administrations, first as the agency's chief financial manager in the administration of President Gerald Ford and later as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health during the administration of President Jimmy Carter.
Mr. Miller was a frequent visitor to Capitol Hill, where he often testified before Health and Senate panels about HHS budget proposals. Mr. Miller was responsible for an managing the budget of the Public Health Service, which included the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. In 1980 he was awarded the Distinguished Executive Service Award from President Jimmy Carter “for leadership exemplifying the highest standards of service to the public."
Following his retirement from HHS, from 1981 to 1989, Mr. Miller served as the Executive Officer of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. Retirement was a relative term for Mr. Miller. After leaving IOM, he was very active with the IONA Senior Services of Washington, where he served as an officer and an ombudsman who inspected nursing homes for the District of Columbia Government.
Charles Miller was born November 22,1923 in Philadelphia. He served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 194 6, including a stint in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he helped code and decode messages for the signal corps. He often joked that the Army sent him to college to learn Japanese and then shipped him to Germany.
After military service, Mr. Miller completed his undergraduate degree in a public administration at Princeton University, and later received a master's degree in political sequence from the University of Pennsylvania.
His long service with the Federal Government began as a management analyst at the Social Security Administration (SSA) in Baltimore. He left SSA to be the Executive Officer of the Federal Security Administration, the predecessor of the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. When he left government service in 1981, he was serving as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U. S. Public Health Service.
Mr. Miller, and his wife, Judith Carpenter, moved to Lewes Delaware from the District in 2005.
He continued to volunteer in the community, including teaching English to immigrants as well as tutoring at local schools in the Lewes area.
He is survived by his wife; his four daughters, Donna Means of Georgetown, DE; Patricia Rao of Silver Spring, MD; Rebecca Ryder of Philadelphia; and Linda Miller of Gaithersburg, MD; 10 grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.
Memorial services will be held on Saturday May 3, 2013 at 11:00 AM at the Parsell Funeral Homes and Crematorium, Atkins-Lodge Chapel, 16961 Kings Highway, Lewes, DE.
In lieu of flowers contributions may be submitted to Delaware Hospice ,100 Patriots Way, Milford, DE 19963 or to the American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102 or to the Sussex RSVP Advisory Council, 546 South Bedford Street, Georgetown, DE 19958 or to the Children’s Beach House, 1800 Bay Avenue, Lewes, DE 19958
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