Called one of the CDC’s finest, J. Donald Millar was admired not just for his successful work in disease eradication and prevention, but as an outspoken advocate for improving public health worldwide.
A retired rear admiral and assistant surgeon general with the U.S. Public Health Service, Millar was a leader in the global campaign that eradicated smallpox by 1980, work that earned him honors including a presidential citation.
He also led efforts to strengthen state health departments, to advance occupational health and safety and boost childhood immunizations.
Even with those achievements, Millar was not shy about pressing elected officials and other health leaders – including himself – to do more.
“He was always a fierce fighter for what he thought was in the best interest of public health, and he let the science speak rather than politics,” said William Foege, former CDC director who worked with Millar on smallpox eradication. “He was not just an administrator doing a job. He was interested in the impact (public health) had on people’s lives.”
Millar died of kidney failure on Aug. 30 at his Murrayville, Ga., home. He was 81. His funeral was Saturday at First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ga.
He was born on Feb. 27, 1934, in Newport News, Va. His father was a shipyard engineer, and his mother was a secretary.
He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Richmond in 1956 and his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia in 1959.
After finishing an internship at the University of Utah, Millar accepted a commission with the Public Health Service in 1961 at the CDC, which was then called the Communicable Disease Center.
In 1966, he became director of the agency’s smallpox-eradication program in Central and West Africa. Through the program, about 100 million people received vaccinations in the region, and the disease was eliminated by 1970.
His program in Africa became a model for the World Health Organization’s smallpox campaign in other countries and led to the eradication of smallpox worldwide by 1980.
On the domestic front, his work helped to reduce U.S. rates of measles, tuberculosis and childhood lead poisoning and to increase U.S. childhood immunization coverage to more than 90 percent.
Millar also was part of a generation of public health leaders whose work expanded the CDC’s focus beyond communicable diseases to addressing the causes of a broad range of health issues, from injuries and disabilities to occupational and environmental.
In 1981, Millar became director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and launched a project to prevent occupational deaths in Alaska, the state with the nation’s highest occupational fatality rate. He also worked with the American Psychological Association to address stress and violence in the workplace.
After retiring from NIOSH in 1993, Millar started an occupational and environmental health consulting firm. He closed the business in 2013.
“He was one of the stars of the CDC. He was a great leader. Everyone who worked with him respected him and enjoyed his company,” said former CDC director Jeffrey Koplan. “He had many other interests, and he did everything with great enthusiasm and a smile and a kind spirit.”
Outside of work, Millar enjoyed sailing and Civil War history. He sang in the church choir and played the string bass for his church orchestra and the Jubalheirs Baptist women’s chorus. He also performed with symphony orchestras in DeKalb County, Gainesville, and Toccoa.
“It was an exciting life, and he could not have planned it any better than what the Lord arranged,” said his wife and high school sweetheart Joan Phillips Millar. “He said he would go wherever he was sent, and he went around the world two or three times. It was a worthwhile sacrifice to improve health around the world.”
In addition to his wife Joan, Millar is survived by his son John Stuart Millar of Murrayville; daughters Allison Millar McMillan of Euharlee, Ga., and Virginia Millar Helms of Clermont, Ga.; brother Douglas Paul Millar of Leavenworth, Wash., and eight grandchildren.
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