William Hansford Miller

William Hansford Miller, 84, of Los Angeles, passed away peacefully on March 20, 2026, at his beloved home in Mandeville Canyon. Born on October 3, 1941, in Cuthbert, Georgia, he was a cherished son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, colleague, and friend.

Dr. Miller, affectionately known as Hans, is survived by his wife, Linda; sister, Martha; stepson Ben (Michelle), and grandson, Arthur Hansford.

Dr. Miller was predeceased by his first wife, Nancy Brown Miller and their grandson, Veda Carsten is survived by his step-daughter, Kathy Carsten, and grandchildren, Nimai and Anjali.

A proud alumnus of UCLA, Dr. Miller earned his doctorate from the University of Georgia in Clinical Psychology in 1970, when he accepted a position at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA and moved to Los Angeles.

In the 1970s, he founded the first Medical Center Parent Training Clinic, a program that remains active today in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA.

Throughout the USA and Europe he lectured and conducted workshops on parent training and severe personality disorders in parents. He worked at St. Anne’s Hospital in Paris and continued to consult and collaborate worldwide.

His esteemed career was marked by. numerous teaching awards, and he served as an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute for Science and Human Behavior.

Dr. Miller authored several influential works, including Systematic Parent Training: Procedures, Cases and Issues and Personal Stress Management for Medical Patients. As a clinical psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles with his wife, Nancy, for over four decades, treated children and families facing a variety of emotional and behavioral challenges.

His enduring interest in neuroscience, behavioral medicine, and the biology of emotional development in children shaped his approach to therapy. He has helped hundreds of individuals and families over the years, from very young children, teen-agers, adults, including many parents and teachers.

In his later years, Dr. Miller embraced semi-retirement and found inspiration in writing poetry. He produced six books of poetry, inspired by his late mother, Georgie O’Quinn Miller, a Poet Laureate in her high school and his father Thomas Marshall Miller, Sr who was a gifted musician. Hans remained active in a neuroscience group, engaging in discussions on various scientific topics. This faithful group of scholars met on Thursdays for nearly 40 years. An avid tennis player, he also enjoyed playing classical guitar and had a deep appreciation for music and fine art. One of his great joys was learning to play the cello, and to have had a Master Class with Yo-Yo Ma. His library was more a gathering of “friends” as he considered the lives and works of Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan, and many others, including Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, and Andrew Wyeth, as being lives deeply inspiring to his own. He painted and drew all his life as a meditation and a way to concentrate. He treasured time in his Zen garden, which he created over many years with Japanese maples, bamboo, stones, and a waterfall.

His later books, Soothing, a memoir, and Moods and Memories of a Pilgrim, a book of poetry, continued to express his desire to help and heal others.

A Graveside Service will be held on April 20, 2026, from 09:30 AM to 10:00 AM at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive.
A map to the service will be provided at the gate.
Reception to follow.

A Service will be held on April 22, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM at Zoom Memorial Online. Please contact Ben at [email protected] for an invitation.