Miller, Dorinda Louise
Dr. Dorinda Louise Miller, 57, of Springdale Road, Pearisburg, Va., departed this life on Sunday morning, December 19, 2010, at Carilion Giles Community Hospital. Born in St. Petersburg, Fla., on July 21, 1953, she was a daughter of Donald D. Ludeke and the late Nova Stalling Ludeke.
She was a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Blacksburg. As a clinical psychologist she had devoted her life to better mental health and especially to overcoming the trauma of a disaster. She was in charge of the mental health program at the Pentagon after the 9-11 disaster; she organized the mental health programs at Virginia Tech after the April 16, 2007, crisis; she was an organizer of the NRV Community Disaster Response Coalition; and she was director for the last two years of the American Cancer Society seminars at Mt. Lake.
During her 23 years of marriage she was foster mother to 13 foster children. Home was her safe-haven to retreat from her labors to enjoy her humming birds, to envelope herself in a good book (as a speed reader she could finish a book a day), and to be blessed with the love of her husband.
Dorinda was currently employed with the Veterans Administration in Beckley, W.Va. She earned her PHD at Chicago Medical School and did her dissertation on The Cook County Burns Unit.
She leaves to cherish her memory her beloved husband, Richard Kent Miller; her father, Donald D. Ludeke; her son, Richard Earl Irwin-Miller, of Chicago, Ill.; her brother, Phillip Ludeke, of Ohio; her sister, Sue Gengle, of Charlevoix, Mich.; her granddaughter, Ivy Young; her sisters-in-law, Sylvia Lloyd, of Radford, and Cheryl Rogers, of Williamsburg; and her dear friends, Brenda Young, Karen Nilson, Michelle Alley, Mary Ann Capp, Stephanie Adkins, Nancy Sizemore, and Darlene Boyd.
A Funeral Mass will be celebrated to honor Dorinda’s life and faith at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 1205 Old Mill Road (off Prices Fork Road), Blacksburg, 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, December 22, 2010, with Father Remi Sojka officiating. The family will receive friends at the church following the services.
The Kendall Funeral Home in Pembroke is caring for Dorinda family during this time. Online condolences may be sent by visiting www.kendallfuneralhome.com.