HOWARD MILNE 1920-2005

My father, Dr. Howard Milne died peacefully in Cupertino on October 11, 2005. He was 84 years old. He here is flanked by his grandson (my son) Michael Siano, and myself.

Born on Christmas Day, 1920, in Grand Junction, Colorado, Dr. Milne graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he met his future wife, Jane Austin, and then from Northwestern University Medical School, which he attended on a Navy scholarship. In the summer of 1945 he was deployed to the Pacific Theater as a Navy doctor on a mine sweeper USS Thompson, which was among the first American ships to reach Hiroshima after the bombing.

After five years of practicing family medicine as the only doctor in Paonia, Colorado, he entered the psychiatry residency program at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. Dr. Milne was recalled to active naval duty in 1951 as the resident psychiatrist at the San Diego Naval Base during the Korean War.

In 1957 he moved with his family to Palo Alto and established a private psychiatric practice at Twin Pines Sanitarium (now Belmont Hills Hospital), where he worked until his retirement in 1985. For many years, he was also a member of the clinical staff at Stanford University Medical Center, where he was a respected and beloved mentor and teacher to many psychiatric residents.

In 1992 he and Jane, his wife of more than fifty years, moved from their long time Palo Alto home to the Forum San Antonio retirement community in Cupertino, where he lived happily until his death. He will be remembered for his brilliant mind, gentle demeanor, his humility, his love of his family, a good book, a challenging golf course, and all things Scottish.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Jane Austin Milne, who died in 1995, and his daughter, Maggie Milne Falke, who died in 1990. He is survived by daughters Nancy MacKay of Oakland and Elizabeth Milne Baum of Palo Alto, and grandchildren Michael and Christiaan Siano of Austin, TX; Ashley Falke of Bakersfield, CA; and Madeline, Grant and Noah Baum of Palo Alto.

At his request, no services will be held. However, it would be a tribute to his memory if friends and family members would play a round of golf or peruse the shelves at Kepler’s Bookstore in his honor, as these were two of his most cherished lifelong pastimes, which he was always eager to share with others.

Donations may be made to Castilleja School’s Global Community Service Project

At 1310 Bryant Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301, http://www.castilleja.org/public/gift/online_giving.html or Doctors Without Borders at http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/index.cfm, two organizations that were near and dear to his heart.