DANVILLE — Dr. O. Fred Miller and his wife Joan are giving back to a community they say has given them so much.

They are giving back by sharing their medical and educational knowledge.

The Millers will be honored for their contribution when they are presented the Robert N. Pursel Distinguished Service Award during the Danville Area Red Cross Holiday Happening on Friday at the Danville Elks Club ballroom. Cocktails and a silent auction start at 6 p.m. followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. and then a charity auction with all proceeds benefiting the Red Cross.

“This community has given us so much of a sense of belonging and our kids benefited greatly. There are so many good people in the community,” Joan said.

“So many people have inspired us,” Fred said.

Fred, who serves as emeritus director and a staff member of Geisinger Medical Center’s dermatology department after heading the department for more than 20 years, has a great interest in education. “I think everyone should be educated well and everyone should have opportunities to be the best he or she can become,” he said.

Fred served 12 years on the Danville School Board and nine years on the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit board. He currently is on the Danville Head Start Advisory Board, chairs the development committee of Maria Joseph Manor Board and is president of the board of the Danville Area Community Foundation. He is also on the Service 1st Federal Credit Union Board and the Capitol Concerts Board in Washington, D.C. He joined the Washington board when he worked with CSIU.

Fred serves with the Columbia County Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in Mifflinville. “It’s wonderful. The last time I was there, I saw an engineer who couldn’t afford insurance. There are people who come there who have jobs but can’t afford insurance,” said Fred who travels to the clinic on an as needed basis to see dermatology patients.

The son of a general practitioner in Bloomsburg, he became interested in dermatology as a medical student. “I liked being able to see the condition and try and figure it out,” said Fred, a member of Geisinger’s dermatology department since 1971.

He and Joan, who is from Ashland, met in the Ashland area. “My folks had a place close to Ashland,” he said.

They moved to the Danville area in 1965, shortly after they were married. The Cooper Township residents left the area for three years in 1968 while Fred served with the U.S. Army in Germany.

A Bloomsburg High School graduate, Fred did undergraduate work at Notre Dame and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He completed residencies at Geisinger in internal medicine and in dermatology and spent his graduate year at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joan has been a faculty member of the Department of Nursing at Bloomsburg University the past 15 years and previously taught at Geisinger’s nursing program.

After their youngest of five children started school, she went back to school. Joan holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from Bloomburg University, a doctorate from Marywood University and nurse practitioner degree from Penn State.

A marathon runner who has inspired family members to become runners including Fred who does shorter distances, Joan is president of the Danville Area Community Center Board. “I am interested in sustaining the center as a vital part of the community and a place for young people and their families can gather for quality time,” she said. When their children and grandchildren come to visit, the first thing they do is go to the community center, she said.

Joan also chairs the Social Accountability and Communication Committee of Maria Joseph Manor and the Meadows board.

She serves as coordinator of the Good Work in Nursing Project, which is affiliated with the Good Work Project at Harvard University to influence professional development of nurses locally and globally. She is also coordinator of the Susquehanna Valley Field School Initiative, aimed at promoting community development and student and faculty commitment to projects enhancing quality of life along the Susquehanna River.

She is a member of SOAR or Students Overcome and Achieve through Running where students run with mentors, set goals and reach those goals. Students will be running in the 100th Run for the Diamonds in Berwick on Thanksgiving Day. The Central Susquehanna Community Foundation supports this program she hopes will expand to all area schools.

As a member of the Wellness Task Force for Action Health, she offers diabetes education as a Bloomsburg University representative.

Joan also works with a team offering health care to migrant workers in the area.

She usually runs one marathon a year and has been running marathons the past 13 years.

Joan also enjoys cooking and makes it a family affair when they get together with the kids and grandkids.

Fred also likes sports and reading and collects stamps.

Two of their children have followed them in the medical field. Son Jeffrey is a dermatologist at Penn State Hershey Medical Center and son Christopher is a dermatology surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania. Son Greg is an investment banker in New York City and son Mark is an investment banker in Birmingham, Mich. Daughter Cathy coordinates the nonprofit group Compass in McLean, Va. The Millers have 11 grandchildren.

-- E-mail comments to kblackledge@thedanvillenews.com.