Miriam Utgoff

UTGOFF MIRIAM SCOTT UTGOFF, Volunteer Miriam Scott Utgoff, age 91, died on January 12, 2008, in her home in Annapolis, Maryland, of kidney failure. She was the widow of retired Navy Captain Vadym V. Utgoff. She was born and brought up in Washington, D.C., where her parents and both sets of grandparents also lived. She lived in France for two years when she was a child of 10 and 11. Her maternal grandfather was the world famous ophthalmologist, Dr. William H. Wilmer, for whom the Wilmer Institute at Johns Hopkins was built and who was its first director. She graduated from St. Timothy‘s School outside of Baltimore. She worked on a regular basis as a volunteer Red Cross nurse‘s aide in Emergency and Georgetown Hospitals and in several other Washington hospitals, as well as in an eye clinic. During World War II she worked for two years, 1943-1945, in the Red Cross Clubmobile units in Bizerte, North Africa and in Italy. Her duties included driving a truck each day to areas within range of enemy gun fire to bring coffee and doughnuts to the soldiers. She was awarded a letter of commendation by Major General Geoffrey Keyes, commander of the Second Corps, for her work. She married a career naval officer, Captain Vadym V. Utgoff, in 1946. They moved frequently as her husband‘s duty stations changed. Their last duty station, before her husband retired from active duty in 1963, was at the Naval Air Facility, Sigonella, Sicily, where he was the commanding officer. She and her family moved to Annapolis, Maryland, in 1965, after her husband became an Associate Professor of aerospace engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy. They also maintained a summer residence in Islesboro, Maine. She did volunteer work once a month as a nurse‘s aide at the Naval Hospital in Annapolis, and later went regularly with a Red Cross unit which met plane loads of Viet Nam wounded at Andrews Air Force Base. She was also a member of the Flower Committee of the Altar Guild at the Naval Academy Chapel and at Christ Church, Dark Harbor, Maine, and a visitor with the Meals-on-Wheels program in Annapolis. She was a member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, the Daughters of the Cincinnati, the Junior League, the Sulgrave Club, and the City Tavern Club. She is survived by her son, Vadym Wilmer Utgoff, of Edmonton, Alberta,Canada, a daughter, Alixe Utgoff Day, of Andover, Massachusetts, a daughter Marina Utgoff Braswell, of Washington, D.C., and five grandchildren. Interment will be in Arlington National Cemetery on February 29th at 3 p.m., following a 10 a.m. service at the Naval Academy Chapel. The family suggests that in lieu of flowers a donation be made to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, 4015 Wilson Blvd., 10th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203, or to Doctors Without Borders, 333 7th Ave., 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001-5004.