Dr. Roger Patrick Millea

Dr. Roger Patrick Millea

ARDMORE, OK - Dr. Roger Patrick Millea, 94, passed away peacefully on November 20, 2022, in Ardmore, Oklahoma surrounded by family. Roger was born July 13, 1928, in Emmetsburg, Iowa, the sixth of Mary (Mahoney) and William Millea's thirteen children.

He attended Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, on a football scholarship, hitchhiking the 265 miles to and from school, before the interstate was built.

Upon graduation, Roger attended medical school at the University of Iowa. His senior year he met and married Mary Wakefield Goltz, a student at the University's law school, whose father Carlos Goltz was a renowned prohibition lawyer. Roger and Mary had five children before divorcing in 1965. (He wed Prudence Helgeson in 1966.)

After receiving his medical degree in 1953, Roger joined the military and interned at the Fresno County Hospital in California. He completed his residency in urology at the State University of Iowa Hospital, while serving as a captain in the United States Air Force.

Moving his family to Rapid City in 1960, Roger was one of only three urologists in the state of South Dakota. His practice not only included the Black Hills area, but surrounding states as well.

On July 18, 1964, Roger was adopted into the Sioux Nation in a Pow Wow Ceremony, honoring "those who have given special assistance to the Indian cause" which included his close friends Dr. Robert Boyce, Don Knecht, and Dr. Lyle Freimark. Roger was given the Sioux Indian name Great White Medicine Man.

Among his achievements, Roger was president of the South Dakota Urological Society; Counselor of the South Dakota State Medical Association; and a founding board member of Rapid City Regional Hospital which opened in 1979 and was rebranded Monument Health in 2020. He also served on the Dean's Committee for VA hospitals, and on the board of directors of the Black Hills Area Catholic Education Trust. (Far from a saint, Roger exercised a quick wit, bawdy humor, and the ability to recite countless limericks.)

For 43 years, Roger remained on the cutting edge of modern medicine, while maintaining old school principles: making house calls, giving his home phone number to patients, and providing care and comfort to anyone in need regardless of their ability to pay.

Equally rewarding was his time spent as a longtime member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Roger sponsored, supported, and inspired countless people during his 60 years of sobriety.

A world traveler, master bridge player, and movie lover, in his later years he became an avid reader and bird watcher, and an active member of the Canyon Lake Senior Center.

Roger held fast to his faith, and for good reason: he survived being swept away in the Rapid City Flood in 1972; quintuple bypass surgery in 2002, two brain surgeries, two hip replacements, a pacemaker, and the death of his beloved Prudence in 2021. "I might not live forever," he said, "but to a lot of people it will feel as if I did." To those who knew and loved him, forever would not have been long enough.

Roger leaves behind his children: Michael, Fred, Paul, Mary, Holly, and Chelsea; his stepson Herb Helgeson; 12 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; his brother Mike, his sisters Julie, Joan, and Geri; sister-in-law Nora; and many nieces and nephews.

Inurnment took place at the Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis, in July. Online condolences can be left at www.osheimschmidt.com